Following Liverpool being linked to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the January transfer window, Arne Slot has responded to the rumours, calling him a “great player.”
Liverpool were continually linked to Kvaratskhelia by usually reliable sources, but he ended up joining Paris Saint-Germain.
Since his £59 million move to France, the Georgian international has started just eight games as he continues to recover and return to full match fitness following a knee ligament injury in December.
Ahead of PSG vs. Liverpool, a reporter asked in broken English: “As I know, in winter, Liverpool wanted to buy Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, but for now he is a player of PSG. What do you think about this player?”
Slot responded: “Probably you don’t come from England because in England people say we almost buy every player that there is in the world, so this where people like him (points at reporter) make their money!
“If you got to England, you see Sky Sports. You see the whole day we are interested in almost every player in the world. It’s a bit exaggerated.
“But I cannot talk about if we were interested, yes or no.”
While Slot couldn’t comment on the Reds’ reported interest, he did have time to praise the 24-year-old winger.
“What I can tell you is that he is a great player,” the Dutchman added.
“He was in (Luciano) Spalletti’s team from Napoli, which I loved to watch when they were dominating the league in Italy and doing really well in Europe. I think they even faced Liverpool in that season (2022/23).
“So, he’s a great player and Paris Saint-Germain have many of them, but he is definitely one of them.”
Despite his talents, Kvaratskhelia isn’t a certainty to start against Liverpool.
He is yet to fully hit the ground running at PSG after joining them short of match fitness. The French side’s front three could consist of Bradley Barcola, Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele.
Alternatively, Kvaratskhelia could play in the front three while Doue drops deeper to make an attacking midfield, or striker Goncalo Ramos could get the nod.
Whatever the case, PSG will have a strong bench that Liverpool’s midfield and defence will need to be fresh enough to deal with in the latter stages.
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