Crystal Palace have had an opening £15million bid rejected for Liverpool winger Ben Doak.
The Scotland international has been impressing on loan at Championship side Middlesbrough which has put him on the wishlist of Premier League sides.
Liverpool have had a number of proposals from Premier League and European sides showing interest in the 19-year-old.
However, the level of offers have so far fallen well short of Liverpool’s valuation.
Liverpool, though, believe he is worth much more than the £15m fee presented by Palace and would demand around £25m for Doak.
The Reds, it is understood, also note the prices played for fellow young Championship attackers in the last 12 months, such as Wilson Odobert who moved from Burnley to Tottenham for £30m and Crysencio Summerville’s £25m transfer from Leeds to West Ham.
Crystal Palace have had an opening £15million bid rejected for Liverpool winger Ben Doak
Liverpool already rejected a £20m bid from Real Madrid for Trent Alexander-Arnold this week
Thanks to his excellent form, Doak claimed Championship Player of the Month in November
Palace have not given up on signing Doak and could return to the table for him this month.
Until offers come closer to those figures, they are content to leave Doak to continue his development under Michael Carrick at Boro where he is excelling and has scored twice in 20 games as they push for promotion.
His impressive form of late has seen Doak claim the Championship Player of the Month award for November, racking up five assists during that time.
Doak arrived at Anfield in March 2022 after showcasing his talents at Celtic as a 16-year-old, with Liverpool paying the Scottish giants £600,000 for his signature.
Given the wealth of competition in wide areas at Liverpool, with Salah, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Harvey Elliott and Federico Chiesa all to compete with, the Scot has struggled to break into the first team since his arrival, earning just 10 senior appearances before his loan spell away.
Liverpool take on Carrick’s old club Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday, having only lost once all season so far.
The Reds, who have carved out a six-point lead at the summit of the Premier League table, are bidding to win their first title under new manager Arne Slot.
They head into January with plenty of question marks over the futures of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk in particular, who each are out of contract in the summer.
Slot will be keen to keep his camp together, given Liverpool are top of the Premier League table
Doak has impressed under Boro boss Michael Carrick (right), playing 20 league matches so far
Real Madrid, who are heavily linked with signing Alexander-Arnold on a free transfer at the end of the season, made a £20m offer for the England right-back in a bid to lure him to the Bernabeu in January — an offer which has been rejected by Liverpool.
Meanwhile, it’s been a torrid start to the campaign for the Red Devils, who continue to struggle for results since Erik ten Hag’s sacking in October.
Slot admitted he felt ‘sympathy’ towards Man United’s new boss Ruben Amorim on Friday and believes the Portuguese will ‘eventually bring the best out of them’, despite Liverpool’s bitter rivals languishing 14th in the Premier League table.
‘It is a big game. They have much better players in my opinion than maybe the league table shows,’ Slot said during his press conference.
‘It’s going to take a while maybe for Ruben to bring it out of the players but they will definitely go up.
‘I think every manager sympathises with every other manager because we all know how much pressure this job brings – that is no different for him or me.
‘This is a job with pressure and it’s also something we like, otherwise we should not do this. He has done so well with Sporting. He has a good squad so he will eventually bring the best out of them.’
Meanwhile, Crystal Palace face Chelsea at Selhurst Park following their narrow 2-1 win over rock bottom Southampton last time out.