Liverpool line up move to sign the NEXT Harry Kane

Liverpool have set their sights on the next Harry Kane who already has a £40m agreement to leave his club this summer.

It's the beginning of a new era at Anfield. Arne Slot's reign has reaped unprecedented rewards with the Reds on course to win their 20th Premier League title.

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But things are just about to get started under this new Slot regime. The club's sporting director, Richard Hughes, was pretty much inactive in the market last summer.

There was calculated intention behind this in order to give appropriate time for Slot to assess the squad he inherited from Jurgen Klopp.

The Dutchman has now had an entire year to take a look at his options and it's quite clear where he wants reinforcements.

One of those roles is the no.9 position, where Darwin Nunez is not quite the right fit for the way Slot wants his team to play and where Hughes is already making moves to sign a potential replacement for the Uruguayan.

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This includes the likes of Hugo Ekitike, with whom Anfield Watch exclusively revealed Liverpool held talks with, Julian Alvarez who Anfield Watch exclusively revealed was very much admired by the club's scouts and a player who could be the next Kane in the Premier League.

Why Liverpool want to sign Liam Delap and why he is Harry Kane 2.0

That player is of course, Liam Delap, who is on Liverpool's radar and who already has an agreement to leave Ipswich Town this summer if his side are demoted to the Championship with a relegation clause of £40m inserted into his contract.

The former Manchester City academy graduate is the son of Rory Delap, who was an icon at Stoke City and is now an assistant manager at Ferencvaros, working alongside Robbie Keane and Naby Keita.

Liam is just 22-years-old and he has the potential to surpass the legacy of his father. He netted 35 goals and registered nine assists for Manchester City's U21 side before hitting 14 goal contributions in the current Premier League campaign.

What makes Delap such an interesting prospect is that he is an excellent finisher. He's capable of scoring goals with his left and right foot and always finds himself in goal-scoring opportunities.

Among Premier League forwards who have played at least 1500 minutes and average at least two shots per 90 minutes, only Alexander Isak (29.41%) and Erling Haaland (21.64%) have a better goal conversion rate than Delap (20.69%).

At 1.86 metres he is relatively tall and already capable of muscling defenders off the ball and playing with his back to goal. But Delap is a lot more multi-functional.

He actually averages more progressive runs (2.25 per 90) and more dribbles (3.7 per 90) than Isak, who is regarded as a very fluid centre-forward.

And Delap is a very effective dribbler. Among players in the Premier League who average at least 3.5 dribbles per 90 Delap ranks in the top 10 (in tenth place) for success rate with 58%.

One of the most interesting aspects about him when you look at his heatmap is the way he likes to drift to the left and drop deeper in the hotspots around the opposition's penalty area.

This was something you often saw Harry Kane do in his prime for Tottenham, before he cut onto his right foot and delivered one devastating finish after another.

Delap's got this movement and action perfected as well and he's got it in his locker to follow in the footsteps of the England captain.

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At £40m this would be an absolute bargain for Liverpool and probably the smartest choice considering the rest of the market.