Incredible star is Liverpool's sacrifice, will land them elite midfielder

Liverpool look set to sacrifice a major player for them. They're hoping it lands them a truly elite midfielder.

Liverpool do, it seems, want to improve their midfield. We expected them to do something about it over the summer but they opted not to, instead spending big on the wing to sign Bradley Barcola and Victor Munoz.

Now, that was necessary. Liverpool lacked production out wide and then lost Mohamed Salah - though, we did think they'd sign at least one right-sided player. That will need to be revisited at some point.

But the midfield wasn't a priority until it suddenly was. Liverpool reportedly made a call on deadline day to keep Lamine Camara at AS Monaco. The star was set to join Chelsea but, per Ben Jacobs, the Reds made it clear to both player and club that they'd enter the race next year at a much higher price.

However, that carries a couple of problems. For one, Liverpool don't have that much money left over for a €70m midfielder. They have bought three nine-figure players in a little over a year, without sales that come anywhere close to covering it all.

Then there's the even bigger issue of homegrown quotas. Liverpool have a severe shortage of homegrown players after selling most of their squad players under Richard Hughes.

They can't actually add another one without paying someone else to sit on the sidelines. They must sell someone, in other words, and it looks to be quite clear who they want rid of.

Jacobs mentions that Liverpool needed to sell Alexis Mac Allister in order to sign Camara. That will hold true in 2027, too, as the Argentine is by far the most sensible sale right now.

That's because Liverpool have paid enormous amounts to renew the contracts of Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai. Mac Allister is the 'other' first-choice midfielder but is not in any contract talks, while signing Camara would mean having four first-choice midfielders for two roles.

We don't believe that's workable. Liverpool would need to ship one of them off if they're to sign Camara and it won't be either of the pair who just renewed their contracts for massive money.

Instead, Mac Allister is positioned to be the sacrifice.