Liverpool have a fight on their hands to land Fluminense midfielder Andre, according to Brazilian journalist Thiago Ferreira.

It is claimed (via TEAMTalk) that the Gunners are “willing to meet” the player’s asking price, which currently stands at €35m (£30m).

Andre has been a target for Jurgen Klopp’s side since the summer but their attempts to sign the midfielder before the end of the last transfer window were knocked back by Fluminense.

Club president Mario Bittencourt spoke out last month to confirm that the Reds did make a formal approach to buy the 22-year-old:

“Liverpool’s chief executive contacted me directly. I replied to him: ‘My friend, I don’t sell players now. If you want to buy now to take in January, we can start talking, or if you want to wait until December’.”

Why did Fluminense reject Liverpool’s approach?

Campaigns in South America are played during a calendar year, rather than between August and May like they do in Europe, so Liverpool’s enquiry for Andre came right in the middle of Fluminense’s season.

With the Brazilian club having performed well in the Copa Libertadores (South America’s equivalent to the Champions League), Fluminense want to keep hold of him until January.

Are Liverpool in danger of losing out to Arsenal for Andre?

The Gunners’ sporting director Edu has strong connections in Brazil, having been the country’s technical director before moving to the Emirates. It means there is a very real chance of the London club hijacking the transfer.

Liverpool are likely to have done a lot of the groundwork on the deal, so that may give them an advantage, both in terms of talks with the club and (more importantly) the player, but the transfer has now become a lot more complicated now another Premier League team has got involved.

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