Liverpool reject £25 million bid from Crystal Palace for Mamadou Sakho Chris Bascombe
29 AUGUST 2017 • 5:00PM
Liverpool have rejected a £25 million bid from Crystal Palace for Mamadou Sakho.
Palace chairman Steve Parish made an offer of an initial £22m with a further £3m in add-ons, but the Merseyside club is standing firm on a £30m valuation.
Palace have now made three bids for the French defender this summer. Sakho is keen to return to Selhurst Park where he enjoyed a successful loan spell last season.
Palace are not the only club to express interest in Sakho, as both West Bromwich Albion and Leicester City are also ready to bid if no deal is struck.
Liverpool have insisted they will not sell for less than £30m ever since Sakho was made available for transfer.Sakho has not played for Liverpool since suffering a Uefa suspension and exile from football on false grounds having been wrongly informed he had taken an illegal substance in 2016.
He missed the Europa League Final and European championships before being allowed to return to domestic football a year ago.
On his comeback, he irked manager Jurgen Klopp with his ill-discipline and lack of fitness, and was banished from the first team squad having received numerous warnings.
Klopp was unwilling to offer a way back and Sakho moved to Palace on loan last January, assisting the club’s survival efforts before picking up a knee injury.
Despite Liverpool’s search for a new centre-back, Sakho has not been under consideration and has been training with the club’s Under 23 squad.
Liverpool are seeking to offload a couple players before the transfer deadline.
As well as Sakho, winger Lazar Markovic is expected to move on. Watford have been in discussions for the player since Marco Silva was appointed. Silva worked with Markovic at Hull last season.
Discussions are ongoing with a loan move to Vicarage Road looking the most likely, although that may not go through until deadline day as Liverpool would prefer to sell the Serbian international.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/08/29/liverpool-reject-25-million-bid-crystal-palace-mamadou-sakho/
