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Inter Milan's Alessandro Bastoni has reportedly emerged as an alternative defensive transfer target to Marc Guehi for Liverpool.
Liverpool tried to sign Guehi over the summer, getting as far as agreeing a deal with Crystal Palace for the defender, only for the London club to U-turn on the agreement at the 11th hour. Palace boss Oliver Glasner did not want to sell Guehi as he felt that the England defender's departure would have left his team short at the back.
Guehi looks set to leave Palace for free when his contract expires at the end of the season, and Liverpool is expected to face stiff competition for his services.
Liverpool effectively had a free run at Guehi earlier this year, but several big European clubs would no doubt view him as an appealing proposition on a free transfer in 2026.
TEAMtalk says that Liverpool considers Bastoni as a possible alternative to Guehi, but that Guehi does indeed remain the Reds' first-choice target.
Liverpool is short of options in the center of defense at the moment, with the collapse of Guehi's move coupled with Giovanni Leoni's long-term knee injury leaving the team with just three senior center-backs at the moment.
Those three players are Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, and Joe Gomez – and there are currently question marks over all three players' futures.
Van Dijk turns 35 next summer, while Konate is set to become a free agent next year, and Liverpool was open to selling Gomez in each of Arne Slot's summers in charge.
Guehi addressed his failed move to Liverpool last month. When it was put to him that he appeared unaffected by the saga when playing for Palace, he replied: "Because it was [business as usual]!
"The sun goes up, the sun comes down. Life goes on.
"That's my mindset, and if you adopt that mindset in most things, you just get on with life and move on.
"Fortunately for me, I'm at a football club that has helped me and given me so much. So it does make it that much easier."
Asked by TNT Sports what helped him cope with the situation, Guehi added: "Having my family there the whole time, friends, people that have always been there for me, and then the football club.
"People that you come in to work with every single day, staff, team-mates, (they are) always there. So when they're joking and laughing and smiling, it just makes it easy, to be honest."
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