Friday, March 29, 2024

Lovren set to leave Liverpool and join Zenit

Dejan Lovren is set to leave Liverpool and join Zenit St Petersburg this summer, according to Paul Joyce of The Times.

The Croatian centre-back arrived to Anfield six years ago for £20 million from Southampton, and played with mixed success for the newly crowned Premier League champions. He was an important part of the team that reached the Champions League final in 2018, but he has been overtaken in the pecking order by Joe Gomez and Joel Matip since.

Zenit have expressed their interest in the 31-year-old a while back but expected to get the deal done for very little money due to Lovren entering his final year under contract. However, it emerged later that the club had the option of extending the deal for another 12 months, and the two clubs have been locked in negotiations since.

They’ve now agreed on a fee amounting to £10.9 million, and Liverpool are yet to decide whether to look to the market for a replacement or to rely on someone from the youth setup to fill the void. Sepp van den Berg and Ki-Jana Hoever, both 18, have proven capable of playing for the first team this season, as has 23-year-old Nathaniel Phillips.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Veselin Trajkovic


Vesko is a football writer that likes to observe the game for what it is, focusing on teams, players and their roles, formations, tactics, rather than stats. He follows the English Premier League closely, Liverpool FC in particular. His articles have been published on seven different football blogs.

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