Liverpool have reportedly turned their attention to Wolverhampton Wanderers' Ruben Neves in their search for a new midfielder.
The Portugal international, who serves as captain of Julen Lopetegui's side, only has 18 months left to run on his contract with the West Midlands outfit.
Wolves have consistently fended off interest in the 25-year-old from clubs in the Premier League and abroad, but they could soon come under pressure to sell their skipper.
Barcelona are believed to be considering a move for Neves as they eye potential successors to Sergio Busquets, while Manchester United and Arsenal have been linked in the past.
Now, The Mirror claims that Liverpool are also weighing up a January approach for the former Porto youngster amid persistent calls from fans for new faces in the midfield.
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The report claims that Jurgen Klopp is a "big admirer" of Neves, whose £70m valuation is dropping by the month as he runs down his contract at Molineux.
Newcastle United are also said to be keeping tabs on the Portuguese lynchpin, but the Magpies would supposedly wait until the summer before making their approach.
Neves has four goals to his name from 18 Premier League games in a Wolves jersey this term, but his efforts have only helped Lopetegui's side to 16th in the table at this stage of the season.
Since arriving from Porto in 2017 and helping Wolves earn promotion to the Premier League in his debut season, Neves has totalled 28 goals and 12 assists in 235 outings for the West Midlands side, and he played in all five games for Portugal at the 2022 World Cup.
Liverpool's only acquisition of the January transfer window so far has been Cody Gakpo, who joined in a £37m switch from PSV Eindhoven, but the out-of-sorts Reds have suffered back-to-back Premier League losses to start 2023.
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Following their 3-1 defeat at the hands of Brentford, Liverpool were humbled 3-0 by Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, seeing them drop to ninth in the standings approaching the midway point of the season.
However, a seething Klopp insisted that the transfer market was not the solution for his injury-hit side in his pre-game press conference, saying: "I've had 6000 press conferences at Liverpool, I have to tell you again the money story?
"Why could it be the reason we have money like crazy and we still don't buy players? You know the answer! It's not that we have so much money we don't know what to do with but we think, 'Ah we don't need anyone'.
"It's just not that easy, we cannot sort the problems [in the January window] with injuries. We cannot solve all problems in the transfer market. In a dreamland, you just buy players."
Liverpool could lose Naby Keita and James Milner on free transfers at the end of the season when their deals run out, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is supposedly weighing up whether to depart this month rather than leaving for nothing in the summer.
As well as Neves, the midfielder's teammate and compatriot Matheus Nunes has been mooted as a possible signing for Liverpool, who meet Lopetegui's side in Tuesday's FA Cup third-round replay at Molineux.
Ben Knapton
