Liverpool have just FAILED with their offer to sign award-winning 26-year-old

Liverpool have reportedly failed in an attempt to sign one of Serie A’s award-winning players of 2024. He's off to Juventus instead.

Tuttosport claims Monza goalkeeper Michele di Gregorio is off to Juventus for next season. The 26-year-old won Serie A's goalkeeper of the year award for 2023/24.

Di Gregorio has had an interesting career path, first coming through at Inter as an academy product. He failed to break in to their first-team, however, and instead left on a series of loans.

That included two years with Serie B side Monza, who he helped earn promotion to Serie A. Once that was achieved, he signed there permanently thanks to a buy clause in the loan deal.

Di Gregorio's Serie A years have been fantastic and now recognised as the best goalkeeper in the country, Juventus are on the brink of signing him. They've even reportedly seen off Liverpool.

Liverpool wanted Di Gregorio

The report suggests Liverpool put more money on the table for both Monza and Di Gregorio. Both club and player rejected the advances, however, as they'd already shaken hands on a deal with Juventus.

So what was Liverpool's plan?

Well, they apparently see Di Gregorio as an ideal successor for Alisson Becker. Alisson has offers from Saudi Arabia, but Liverpool intend to reject them.

Instead, they'd want Di Gregorio to play as a backup for Alisson over the next couple of years. He'd then replace him as Liverpool's no.1 goalkeeper down the line.

Now, that suggests the Reds wanted the Italian as a replacement for Caoimhin Kelleher. The Irishman currently has that role but doesn't want it - he's not in favour of waiting to be a no.1 goalkeeper any longer.

Is this confirmation of sorts that Liverpool are replacing Kelleher? Or is it just the Italian press using the Reds to boost a player's profile? The latter, of course, is a very common practice.