West Brom striker Salomon Rondon has been attracting interest from both Liverpool and Everton if reports are to be believed, and the reaction from the red half of Merseyside has been decidedly mixed.
Rondon has been a regular at the Hawthorns since joining the club from Zenit St Petersburg in 2015, but has never scored more than ten goals in a season for the Baggies and has only five so far in this campaign.
Call me a skeptic if you must, but I find it get hard to believe that any PL club is looking at Salomon Rondon - a man who has 20 goals in 94 league games for West Brom while playing mostly as a lone striker
— Chris Deeley (@ThatChris1209) January 26, 2018
Liverpool have been seeking to add to an already-dazzling array of attacking talent, but appear to have been priced out of a move for Monaco winger Thomas Lemar, despite having a bulging bank balance following the £146m sale of Philippe Coutinho.
The Reds have now turned their focus to Rondon, and some Liverpool fans are taking it...not well:
This has to be a wind up!! Sell coutinho and go for Rondon? Why not go for Chris Martin while we’re at it? Or coax Robert Rosario out of retirement?
— Jez Oborn (@jezo08) January 25, 2018
That’s not happening I will stop supporting Liverpool
— Tamer Bilal (@LondonTamz) January 24, 2018
That last one might be a bit of an overreaction, but negativity is understandable given Rondon's poor record in front of goal. Some supporters are keen to find a positive though:
Rondon is an absolute handful and a much different to the three mentioned. He's big but deceptively quick and actually good on the ball. Be a good signing in my opinion.
— rp anderson (@frankenhooker75) January 25, 2018
Rondon is a good option, an outlet for long balls to counter high pressing, better than negative square passes. I can see him performing well with the Holy Trinity feeding him, and vice versa.
— The Urban Pensioner (@UrbanPensioner) January 25, 2018
Rondón would low key be a good signing for Liverpool. A strong targetplayer capable of locking heads in the box. Could become extremely valuable and useful to feed crosses when opposition defenses are sitting low and LFC struggle to break through lines. Need a midfielder though.
— Maxi (@MaaxiAngelo) January 24, 2018
For a fee rumoured to be in the region of £15m, Rondon would be a relatively risk-free addition to Jurgen Klopp's squad, but Liverpool fans will demand more from the club's owners with the transfer deadline just a few days away.
Everton is probably a more realistic destination for the Venezuelan striker. The Toffees have been over-reliant on the goals of Wayne Rooney and could do with a new forward man to inject some verve into their attack.
Rondon is also the latest name to be linked with Chelsea in their ongoing pursuit of a striker, with West Brom's local rivals Wolves also interested in a shocking coup according to the Birmingham Mail.
- 90Min