Wirtz to Reds transfer doubt emerges as 'real reason' for Man City 'pulling out' is revealed

Liverpool are reportedly closing in on the signing of Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen

A football finance expert is ‘very sceptical’ that Liverpool will be able to offer over £100m to Bayer Leverkusen for Florian Wirtz this summer.

The Reds have already sealed a deal to sign Bayer Leverkusen defender Jeremie Frimpong, although the transfer hasn’t been officially announced, with the Netherlands international to replace Real Madrid-bound right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold.

A report earlier this week suggested that Liverpool are looking to sign another five new players after Frimpong with his Leverkusen team-mate Wirtz now in their sights.

Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg revealed on Saturday that Wirtz has ‘turned down’ Bayern Munich and Liverpool have ‘agreed’ personal terms with the Germany international.

Plettenberg wrote on X: ‘Liverpool FC had already agreed all important personal terms with Florian Wirtz – just like FC Bayern.

‘Internally at LFC, the club’s record transfer had already been approved, as reported today in our show.

‘The final “yes” from the player came today. Arne Slot personally spoke with Wirtz.

‘Liverpool are now preparing the official offer. Leverkusen are very optimistic that an agreement with LFC will be reached shortly. Wirtz turned down Bayern today.’

But former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson insists that he remains “very sceptical” that Liverpool will be willing to spend near the €150m (£126m) that Leverkusen want for Wirtz.

Borson told Football Insider: “We spoke a couple of times about how difficult it would be for anybody to do this deal and not just City.

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“But I think it’s unlikely that the real reason for City pulling out is financial.

“I think City almost certainly would be able to cope with the financial burden of the deal better than anybody else, and therefore you have to assume that the reality is that he’s just told them that he’d rather go somewhere else.

“Then the question will be back to where we were when we discussed this in previous weeks is to whether people can find a landing on what the right price is and what the right fee is, and it certainly doesn’t look that clear at the moment that Bayern Munich can do the deal.

“I still am very sceptical as to whether Liverpool would be prepared to pay in excess of £100million. Maybe they would do £100million.

“They did offer that for players in the past at that sort of level, so maybe they do £100million. But I suspect they wouldn’t go much higher.

“It’s really just going to be a case of what Leverkusen would accept and where the player is prepared to go. But my gut feel is that he’s told City that he’d prefer to go to Bayern Munich or Liverpool.

“Certainly, I think he would prefer to go to Bayern Munich and City have just said ‘Well, we’re not going to commit €300million (£252million) over five years if you’re not even keen to come, forget it’. It’s just the nature of buying the very best players in the world.

“They are super expensive and, if they’re not interested in coming in, you can’t afford to take the risk of forcing a signing of that kind of scale.”

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