“He was linked in the summer” – Journo On Interest In Cody Gakpo

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With the World Cup now approaching the knockout stages, football fans across the world have had the opportunity to see every team in action on more than one occasion. One of the players in contention for the Golden Boot is Cody Gakpo, who has scored three times, helping the Netherlands progress comfortably through to the last-16 stage.

The 23-year-old attacker has been linked with a move to Liverpool by Dutch football magazine Voetbal International.

Goal.com’s Neil Jones has been keeping a keen eye on the Netherlands in the World Cup, and on the latest episode of our Journo Insight show, we asked Neil for his take on the Gakpo rumours.

Neil said:

“I haven’t been impressed by him. He’s literally scored in every game and he’s scored right foot, left foot, and header but that’s literally all he’s done – he doesn’t touch the ball. That’s the sort of doubt I’d have in the sense of is he just on a hot streak where everything he’s hitting’s going in. They’re not a great side to watch, the Dutch. They’re not a great side to play in attack for, most definitely, and in fairness to him, he’s made something of everything he’s had.

I don’t look at him and see this is an elite-level player at the moment. He’d be on my El-Hadji Diouf: ‘Don’t judge him on the World Cup’ list. He was linked in the summer, and Leeds were closest to signing. He was quite heavily linked with Southampton at one stage as well – that tells you a little bit. Maybe I’m just being very harsh and maybe I’m a little bit stung by previous Dutch league superstars – Kežman, people like that, Alfonso Alves and those kinds of players, maybe that’s still prominent. He doesn’t stand out to me as someone who Liverpool have to go and sign or Liverpool have to be in the race for. He strikes me as a player who’s on a pretty good run of form and has got a lot to prove still.”

Redmen Reacts

There are many cautionary tales told by clubs who signed a player on the back of a good World Cup – none more cautionary than Liverpool and El-Hadji Diouf. The Senegalese star scored twice on his home debut for the Reds – so far, so good – but only managed one more league goal in his next 53 games before being offloaded to Bolton Wanderers. There have also been high-profile Eredivisie goalscorers that have failed to shine in the Premier League. Neil names two of them above, but more recently Gakpo’s international teammate Memphis Depay struggled to replicate his home form after a big-money move. There are strong links with Eric ten Hag. The Manchester United boss has already shopped for players from his homeland, and with a recent job vacancy opening up in the attack at Old Trafford, the move makes a lot of sense. Liverpool may be losing Roberto Firmino at the end of the season; in which case they would be in need of fresh striking options themselves. Seeing if Cody Gakpo can produce in the Europa League with PSV would be a better indication of whether or not he is the ‘real deal’ than his World Cup exploits.

TO HEAR MORE FROM NEIL ON TOPICS SUCH AS IAN GRAHAM’S DEPARTURE, CLICK HERE



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