Liverpool's Pursuit of Ayyoub Bouaddi: The Midfield Dilemma
Liverpool are not out of the race for Ayyoub Bouaddi. Not yet, and not by a long way.
Manchester City may be preparing what has been described as a “hard push” for the Lille midfielder, but Liverpool’s interest has not cooled. If anything, the World Cup has only sharpened the focus on a player who has been on their radar for months.
Iraola’s Liverpool and the midfield question
Andoni Iraola walked into Anfield earlier this week and immediately set a tone. Clear, sharp, unapologetically ambitious. He spoke about the need for a new winger to follow in Mohamed Salah’s footsteps, but the subtext was just as important: this Liverpool side will run, press and suffocate opponents again.
To do that, the midfield has to change.
Iraola has already nailed a couple of colours to the mast. He wants Curtis Jones to stay. He has hinted at unexpected lifelines for players who looked finished under Arne Slot. Yet even with those internal solutions, there is a recognition that this engine room needs more power and more legs if his high-tempo game is to survive a full Premier League season.
That is where Bouaddi comes in.
At 18, the Lille midfielder has already amassed 96 senior appearances in Ligue 1. That is not a prospect’s résumé; it is a young veteran’s. His performances at the World Cup with Morocco have pushed him onto the global stage, dragging some of Europe’s biggest clubs into the chase. Arsenal, PSG, Real Madrid – all watching closely.
Now City have stepped up.
City’s push and a market gone wild
On Tuesday, reports emerged that Manchester City are ready to move aggressively for Bouaddi, a pursuit that comes amid talk of an 11-player clearout at the Etihad. It is the sort of squad refresh that usually ends with a marquee signing in midfield, and Bouaddi fits the profile: young, proven, and expensive.
Very expensive.
The market has shifted brutally. Not long ago, a bid of around €60m (£51m, $68m) would have forced Lille into a serious conversation. That figure is gone. In its place sits a €100m (£85m, $114m) valuation, inflated in part by City’s own £116m move for Elliot Anderson, a deal that has dragged the going rate for elite young midfielders into new territory.
That is Liverpool’s problem. Not the player. The price.
Specialist Liverpool journalist David Lynch has been clear on that point. Speaking on the Anfield Index podcast, he underlined both the admiration and the complication.
“He’s definitely a player Liverpool admire and have done before the World Cup,” Lynch said. The tournament in North America, where Bouaddi shone for Morocco, has not helped Liverpool’s cause. “I think it’s not been helpful for their interest just how good a World Cup he’s had. I just think it’s pushed the price up even further.”
The numbers now sit in a bracket Liverpool rarely like to occupy for teenagers. City do. That is the tension.
“It has pushed the price into the kind of realms of prices that maybe Manchester City are slightly more willing to pay for a younger player than Liverpool would be,” Lynch added.
Liverpool still in the game – with conditions
Yet this is not a done deal for City, and Liverpool have not walked away.
“It’s still early days in that one,” Lynch stressed. “I don’t think we’re in the place where we can completely rule them out.”
The key, as so often under FSG, lies in outgoings. Before Liverpool commit around £85m to an 18-year-old, they will almost certainly need to move someone on.
“The big thing you can say about midfield and coming to Liverpool is that it’s going to take some outgoings,” Lynch explained. “For midfield movement, you’re going to need to see outgoings – and maybe if we do see an outgoing, they kind of come at Bouaddi a bit stronger.”
That is the equation: sell smart, then strike.
Liverpool’s recruitment under Iraola will not be built on sentiment. If the right offer lands for a current midfielder, the club gains both a squad slot and the financial headroom to attack a deal of this size. If it does not, they may have to watch Bouaddi head to Manchester, Paris or Madrid.
For now, though, one thing is not in doubt.
“The one thing I do know about this is that he’s a player that they like,” Lynch concluded.
City are ready to push. Lille have set their price. Iraola wants a midfield capable of matching his ideas. Somewhere in that triangle sits the decision that could define Liverpool’s next great side.
