Wolfsburg defender Micky van de Ven – who is being linked with Man City – has spoken out about a potential move to Premier League giants Liverpool.
The 22-year-old played 36 times for Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg during the 2022/23 campaign and he has been capped several times for Netherlands U21s.
Liverpool are understood to be in the market for a young defender who can compete within Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate.
New sporting director – Jorg Schmadtke – reportedly identified Van de Ven as a potential target before the summer transfer window opened.
Earlier this week, it was claimed that Liverpool have ‘beat’ Man City at the ‘auction’ for Van de Ven, who has been described as a ‘phenomenon’ by Spanish outlet Nacional.
Liverpool are prepared to pay ‘ten times’ the €3m that Wolfsburg paid to sign Van de Ven – who has been billed as ‘the new Van Dijk’ – from Volendam. The Dutch defender has reportedly also said ‘yes’ to joining Klopp at the Premier League club.
Now Van de Ven has admitted that he knows Liverpool have been “following him” and he “could consider taking the step” of signing for them.
“Of course, there are a lot of people who draw lines. It’s true that the director [Schmadtke] went there and I know that Liverpool followed me before. But at the moment I don’t know anything,” Van de Ven told Voetbal International.
“Do I think Liverpool is a nice club? Naturally!”
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Van De Ven added: “If a nice club comes along that has a clear plan with me, then I could consider taking a step.
Then you are open to that in that sense. There is a chance that after this summer I will just play in the Bundesliga, but there is also a chance that I will make a transfer. We will see. Let’s finish this season first.”
Van de Ven’s comments were made after Konate insisted that Liverpool “have to replace” Roberto Firmino, James Milner, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
“We have to replace them,” Konate said. “If not, what do we do? Do we play with an understaffed squad lacking in quality? You can’t rely on youth at this level. I’m sure the boss and the recruitment team know we need new players.”
“We had a rough start to the season,” added Konate. “We said to ourselves that the Champions League was the goal, and I think we won like ten games from our last 11 matches [the Reds actually won seven from nine]
