Liverpool joint hunt for red hot Prem star second only to Haaland – ‘big admirer’ Hughes has significant advantage

Liverpool have their gaze firmly set on signing Antoine Semenyo, and while the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham are also ready to pay big money for the Bournemouth star, the Reds may have a significant transfer advantage thanks to Richard Hughes.

The 25-year-old has been in superb form for the Cherries so far this season, plundering an impressive six Premier League goals and putting him second behind only the inevitable Erling Haaland in the goalscoring charts so far. And with three assists to his name too, there is a strong claim for Semenyo to be regarded as one of the best players in the Premier League right now.

Over the summer, Bournemouth managed to not only palm off interest in his services from the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham, but also persuade the 25-year-old star to ink a new deal. The new arrangement ties him down to the Vitality Stadium for a further five years and until summer 2030.

However, Semenyo is cut from a different cloth and one of the aspects of his game that makes him different is the fact that he employs a ‘personal skills coach’.

Now that coach, Saul Isaksson-Hurst, has revealed it is “only a matter of time” before Semenyo moves on to pastures new – and he expects the player to soon start “lighting up the Champions League”.

According to talkSPORT journalist Alex Crook, Liverpool are ‘big admirers’ of Semenyo and are ready to throw their hat firmly into the ring for a 2026 transfer.

Crook reports that the player’s continued improvement is likely to mean an asking price of at least £75m (€86m, $100m) for a player who now boasts an impressive 29 goals and assists across the 2024/25 campaign and in his seven matches so far, this.

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Semenyo’s skills coach speaks out as Liverpool trump card is explained

Indeed, having already shown his faith in signing Semenyo from Bristol City for a fee of just £10.5m back in January 2023, Hughes has witnessed his transfer gamble enjoy a rapid rise to super-stardom – and the player knows it is largely thanks to the faith the Reds’ sporting director has shown in him that has put him on that path.

Now that relationship is seen as a potential ace card in deciding where Semenyo will play next – and there is a belief that, should Liverpool make a move, he would be tempted to reinforce that relationship in taking the next step in his career.

Semenyo has never lacked ability or belief, but sometimes players need that stepping stone and element of good fortune to elevate their game. At the time, there were some who questioned Hughes’ wisdom in paying such a fee for a player who only averaged a G/A every 2.97 games in the second tier.

Yet it was Hughes who saw that promise and gave Semenyo the stepping stone into the Premier League.

Meanwhile, the player’s coach, Isaksson-Hurst continues to be marvelled by the 25-year-old sensation, who was playing non-league football with Bath City just seven years ago.

“He’s unbelievable,” Isaksson-Hurst told the Mirror. “He’s a Champions League player and was unlucky not to get a move in the summer, but it’s a matter of time before he goes to a big club. There was interest. He’s one of the most electric players in the Premier League at the moment. So there’s no ceiling.

“If you can dominate the Premier League, you can dominate any league. He could play for any of the big clubs and make an impact.” Semenyo approached Isaksson-Hurst at the start of the summer and first worked with the specialist technical coach while holidaying in the south of France before intense sessions in London ahead of pre-season.

“I said to him straight away – ‘You should be playing Champions League football’,” Isaksson-Hurst recalled. “That’s got to be the initial target.

“How’s he going to do that? You’ve got to be one of the best players at Bournemouth and help them have a really successful season and ideally be one of the highest for goals and assists in your team and in the league which will give you the platform to do that. It’s a natural progression.”

Semenyo also shares an incredible desire to be the best version of himself he can be, and Isaksson-Hurst added: “That resilience to work hard. That’s one of the reasons he contacted me…

“He understands that he needs to keep going, that he hasn’t arrived. He wants to be the best player he can be, to keep working on his craft. A lot of footballers approach me but very few are willing to do this stuff regularly and go the extra mile.”

Latest Liverpool news: Guehi’s ‘new perspective’; Turkish ‘phenom’ tracked

Elsewhere on the incoming front, Liverpool are still doing all they can to persuade Marc Guehi to move to Merseyside in 2026. Still, three sources have shared why a January deal will not be done, and with the player now very much open to several transfer opportunities that are coming his way, including his ‘new perspective’ on his future.

Meanwhile, Liverpool have taken a shine to one of Europe’s best young playmakers despite signing Florian Wirtz in the summer transfer window, according to a report, though a deal for the Turkish ‘phenom’ may not be easy for Slot and Richard Hughes to pull off.

Wirtz is not the only Liverpool player who is not at his best at the moment, with Manchester United legend Paul Scholes accusing the Reds of unsettling another Anfield star by making a lot of signings in the summer transfer window.

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