Talks collapsed: Liverpool now in frame to complete £34.2m central defender signing

Liverpool could be set to take advantage of Nottingham Forest‘s collapsed negotiations with Sporting Lisbon for Ousmane Diomande.

French journalist Sebastien Vidal reports on X (formerly Twitter) that the £34.2m-valued centre-back has “long been on the Reds’ radar”.

The Merseysiders have suffered a multitude of injury concerns in the backline in recent months.

With the greatest of respect to Forest, we’re struggling to understand how £34.2m is proving to be a major stumbling block in their pursuit of the Primeira Liga star.

Still, if Oliver Glasner’s men are seriously not interested in evolving their interest further this summer, we’d hope that Liverpool are looking at Diomande as a potential market opportunity.

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As we’ve already discussed extensively at Empire of the Kop, it seems that any further business to address the gaps in the squad will depend on our talks with PSG to sign Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye.

The Frenchman, one might reasonably expect, will set Liverpool back in the region of £100m-plus, with the Parisien giants hoping to secure closer to £145m for the 23-year-old.

Ousmane Diomande’s ball-playing ability is certainly worth bragging about, with him demonstrating remarkable accuracy over both short and long distances.

* Ousmane Diomande’s stats in the 2025/26 Primeira Liga (Fotmob)

That’s not to suggest the Ivorian is simply flawless across all aspects. We do have some serious concerns over the 22-year-old’s work against the ball, with some rather alarming figures around duels and aerial duels contested.

Now, Diomande does play for a dominant side in Portugal, which we’re sure will influence the numbers we’re seeing.

But we’d still hope to see a centre-back linked to Liverpool boasting impressive aerial prowess, given how the Premier League has become increasingly defined by set-piece play and physicality.

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