Liverpool 'discover' Xavi Simons price tag as Premier League transfer battle emerges
Xavi Simons is available for transfer this summer and Liverpool have been notified how much the attacking midfielder would cost
RB Leipzig have reportedly set an €80m (£67.3m) price tag for Xavi Simons' transfer this summer. The attacking midfielder remains linked with Liverpool closing in on the summer window should Arne Slot deem extra creativity and flair a necessary addition to his Premier League-winning squad.
Simons, who has been heavily linked to a host of Premier League clubs including Liverpool plus rivals Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United only joined the German club permanently in the January transfer window from Paris Saint-Germain. Leipzig paid £42m for the 21-year-old after having him on loan for the previous 18 months.
After impressing on the international stage at Euro 2024 last summer, the Dutch ace has seen his progress stunted by an unfortunate ankle injury this campaign but has still managed 10 goals and eight assists.
In spite of tying himself permanently to Leipzig, reports in the months since have described Simons as eyeing the next step of his career and the latest update clarifies that his employers are likely to oblige.
Sky Sports Deutschland now claims Red Bull's target this summer is to cut the wage bill of their Saxony-based club in the upcoming summer transfer window.
The likelihood is that Leipzig miss out on European football entirely next season - and by extension the financial rewards that come with it - despite possessing the slim opportunity to make the Europa Conference League if a number of factors go in their favour on the final day of the Bundesliga's season this coming weekend.
Simons, with his utmost desire being to play in the Champions League, is named amongst the cohort 'highly deserving' of a move to better things.
With that it is said his club will ask for a substantial €80m (£67.3m) so that they can profit on what was given to PSG in winter.
This is several million higher than what had previously been reported about the player.
The good news for Liverpool, the English champions, hoping to sway Simons in their direction is that they can boast Champions League qualification for next season when the rest of their Premier League rivals are yet to be able to.
Arsenal look set to wrap up their inclusion in the final weeks of the season, with Chelsea fighting for a top-five place. Manchester United could also qualify by winning the Europa League final next week.
Slot and Simons have crossed paths before as fellow Dutchmen. They were on opposing sides, in the dugout and on the field of play respectively, in the 2022/23 campaign for Eredivisie meetings between Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven.
PSV won the home meeting with the attacking midfielder providing an assist, and he did so again when the sides drew 2-2 in the reverse fixture at De Kuip.
In the opening six months of that season, Simons was a teammate of Cody Gakpo's before the attacker completed his £37m January 2023 transfer to Anfield.
But the pair have remained Dutch national teammates in the time since, joined by Virgil van Dijk and Ryan Gravenberch.