Liverpool continued their pre-season preparations this afternoon with an extremely comfortable 2-0 win against Wigan, notable for some Coutinho magic and a bit of a ricket by new goalkeeper Loris Karius.
Jurgen Klopp confirmed afterward that he would continue his recruitment drive ahead of his first full season in charge at Anfield, and subsequent events have proved him to be a man of his word. The club are beset by somewhat of a defensive crisis at the moment. Kolo Toure has left, and Martin Skrtel has finally departed also, for Fenerbache. (It didn't take long for Turkey's defence to collapse upon his arrival this week, as one twitter user pointed out).
In addition to those departures, Mamadou Sakho and Joe Gomez will miss the beginning of the season with Achilles injuries and new signing Joel Matip hobbled off at Wigan with an ankle injury.
Liverpool are tonight on the verge of adding to their defence with the signing of Estonian centre-back Ragnar Klavan from Augsburg. Klavan played both legs of the Europa League clash against Liverpool last season, and has made more than 100 appearances for Estonia. Two of these came against Ireland in the Euro 2012 play-offs. The fee is believed to be around £4.2 million, per the Liverpool Echo's oracle of transfer truth, James Pearce:
#LFC closing in on a £4.2million deal to sign FC Augsburg defender Ragnar Klavan this week
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) July 17, 2016
Klavan has been bestowed the considerable honour of being the Estonian Player of the Year for the last three years in a row.
Elsewhere, Liverpool are interested in prising midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum off the hands of former manager Rafa Benitez. Following the sale of Jordon Ibe and the failure to sign Piotr Zielinski, Klopp has turned his attention to the Dutch midfielder. Liverpool are offering £15 million, Newcastle want £27 million, but Chris Bascombe of The Telegraph reports that the club are confident they can seal the deal for £20 million in the coming days.
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