Reports: Liverpool agree £20 million fee with Southampton for Dejan Lovren

Dejan Lovren very close to completing move to Liverpool

Liverpool have agreed a fee in the region of £20 million with Southampton for the Croatian defender Dejan Lovren. The move will be confirmed subject to the player passing a medical over the weekend.

Lovren had earlier expressed his interest in joining the Reds, and was unhappy that Southampton were not allowing him to make the move. This has been one of the summer’s longest running transfer saga’s, and the Southampton manager Ronald Koeman had also indicated his unhappiness at the fact that Lovren was openly expressing his interest in moving to Anfield.

If the move is completed, the center back will be the 4th big player to leave the club this summer, with his former teammates Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert both having been signed by Liverpool earlier in the summer, while Luke Shaw was signed by Manchester United.

Both clubs and their transfer business so far

All these transfers will hurt their progression this season, as Koeman now has the task of sufficiently strengthening his squad to make sure that they can compete well in the League. So far, the Dutchman has signed Graziano Pelle and Dusan Tadic to replace Lambert and Lallana.

Liverpool have been on a spending spree this summer, with 4 players already signed (Markovic and Can in addition to the English duo mentioned earlier) and 4 players who will be confirmed following their medicals (Divock Origi, Loic Remy, Dejan Lovren and Javier Manquillo (on loan from Atletico Madrid))

#LFC and #SaintsFC have agreed a £20m fee for Lovren. Medical will happen in the UK on Saturday.

— Ben Smith (@BenSmithBBC) July 25, 2014