Liverpool have finally reached agreement for the sale of Christian Benteke to Crystal Palace and opened the door for Danny Ings to depart Anfield.
The clubs have settled on a fee of £27m plus £5m in add-ons for the Belgium international, who signed for Liverpool in a £32.5m move in July 2015 and will be Palace’s record signing.
Benteke, 25, has travelled to London for his medical after personal terms were agreed. Palace had an offer of £23m, plus add-ons, rejected this week.
The deal comes on the day when Jürgen Klopp said the England striker needs to be playing regularly as he continues his recovery from injury. Ings signed from Liverpool last summer only to sustain a cruciate ligament injury half a dozen games into his Anfield career.
He made his comeback in the final game of last season, but was not selected in the match-day squad for the Premier League fixture against Arsenal last Sunday. Klopp’s starting XI did not include a striker, with the Brazilian Roberto Firmino playing in a ‘false nine’ position at the Emirates Stadium.
The Reds continue their campaign against Ings’s old club Burnley , but Klopp could not confirm a spot for the player who scored 11 league goals for the Clarets in 2014-15.
“I like Danny, really,” Klopp said. “I talked to him last week and I said in my opinion it makes more sense if he can collect game time, if he can play. What he did, he scored a goal [for Liverpool’s under-23 side] and that’s all good, but the situation here is as it is.”
As well as Firmino, Daniel Sturridge and Divock Origi are ahead of Ings in Klopp’s striking thoughts. Mario Balotelli remains on the books but is widely expected to leave the club.
“We have to build a squad where everybody has a perspective to play,” Klopp said. “Every player needs to work and be available and then I make decisions, that’s how it is. Show me your best and I will make decisions and the most comfortable decision for me would be that the decisions are really difficult to make. That’s a manager’s life.”
Klopp has already allowed Jon Flanagan to depart on loan, also to Burnley, as he continues his rehabilitation after missing more than a season with a knee injury. “It’s similar to Danny,” Klopp said. “After a long injury you need time and the opportunity to play.”
Palace are now weighing up a move for Chelsea’s Loïc Rémy in a permanent deal worth £9m or a season-long switch that will cost the Eagles around £3m.