Liverpool looks set to lose out on Nigerian winger Moses Simon as Wolfsburg close in on him

ENGLISH Premier league giants Liverpool may miss out on signing Super Eagles winger Moses Simon as Bundesliga clubside Wolfsburg have shown an aggressive interest in the player and begun negotiating with his Belgian club Gent.

Simon has been heavily linked with a move to Liverpool with manager Jurgen Klopp said to be preparing a £10m move for the player ahead of the start of the new season. However, this may now fall through as reports indicate that a move to Wolfsburg is close to happening after Gent accepted a bid from the Bundesliga side.

After Wolfsburg approached Gent, Simon is said to be thrashing out personal terms with the club with the aim of signing a five year deal. If that is resolved, the player will undergo a medical within the next 72 hours, after which the deal will be sealed and delivered allowing the player to move to Germany.

Gent have confirmed rumours of Moses Simon leaving the club this summer after omitting his name from their squad for the forthcoming season. Last week, the club released their squad numbers for next season and the winger was conspicuously missing from the list of players assigned squad numbers by the side.

Meanwhile Gent have lost out to fellow Belgium side Club Brugge in the race to sign Liverpool loanee Taiwo Awoniyi over the forthcoming season. Awoniyi, a lanky and pacy striker, was heavily courted by Gent after his 11 goals for modest Belgian side Mouscron where he spent last season on loan from Liverpool but Brugge have now won the race for his signature.

Club Brugge will be campaigning in the Uefa Champions League this forthcoming season and the club used this to sway Awoniyi to have a change of mind about joining Gent. Awoniyi was supposed to be a part of the deal that will see Moses Simon join Liverpool but his decision to join Brugge could be as a result of Gent’s decision to sell Simon to Wolfsburg instead.

At Brugge, Awoniyi will play alongside fellow Nigerian Dennis Bonaventure and Dutch-Nigerian forward Arnaut Danjuma Groeneveld who was his teammate at Dutch second division side NAC Breda two seasons ago, while he was on loan at the club. Still a Liverpool player, Awoniyi was signed by the Merseysiders On August 31 2015 for a fee of around £400,000 but was immediately loaned out to FSV Frankfurt and has had spells at other clubs since.