Liverpool have reached an agreement to sign Georginio Wijnaldum from Newcastle United for a fee of £25m. The Holland international is expected to undergo a medical at Anfield after the clubs finalised terms in discussions that continued into the early hours of Thursday.
The deal comprises a guaranteed £23m, with an additional £1m dependent on appearances and a further £1m subject to Liverpool achieving specified targets. Wijnaldum, who joined Newcastle for £14.5m from PSV Eindhoven last summer, had been determined to remain in the Premier League following the Magpies’ relegation to the Championship.
Newcastle manager Rafael Benítez now hopes to secure Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva, whom he originally signed for the Reds in 2007. Talks regarding an exchange involving one or more Liverpool players moving to St James’ Park did not yield an agreement.
Liverpool are set to recoup at least half of the Wijnaldum fee after accepting a £13m bid from Stoke City for Joe Allen. Meanwhile, Jon Flanagan is considering a proposed loan move to Burnley.
