Liverpool slams £33m on Shaqiri amid Monaco interest

LIVERPOOL have slapped a £33 million price-tag on Xherdan Shaqiri with Monaco interested in luring the Champions League winner away from Anfield, according to Blick.
On paper, you’d think Shaqiri’s debut season on Merseyside couldn’t have gone better. 12 months after being relegated from the Premier League with Stoke City, the Switzerland international was lifting old ‘big ears’ high into the starry Madrid sky.
In addition, Shaqiri helped Liverpool accumulate a club-record 97 points in the Premier League while scoring twice in a 3-1 triumph over Manchester United in December.
But it wasn’t all positive. A key player in the first half of the season, Shaqiri slipped from view after Christmas – so much so that manager Jurgen Klopp was forced to publicly and repeatedly deny claims of a bust up.
Yet, the fact that the former Bayern Munich and Inter Milan winger was trusted to start just two league games in 2019 suggests there was something very wrong behind the scenes.
And with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Adam Lallana back to full fitness, Shaqiri’s task is only going to get harder.
So is he going to walk out of Anfield, just a year after arriving in what looked like one of the summer’s best bargains? Blick claims that he’s rejected a switch to China but the chance to play for Monaco will surely prove a lot more tempting.
Liverpool want £33 million – a £20 million profit on the fee they paid Stoke. Now, the Reds are masters of making barely-believable profits out of seldom-seen players and they might be about to work their transfer market magic again.