Wantaway Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren finally close to leaving club in £23m deal

Liverpool (opens in new tab) defender Dejan Lovren is on the verge of joining Roma (opens in new tab), according to Calcio Mercato (opens in new tab).
The Croatia international fell out of favour at Anfield last term, with Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip now ahead of him in the centre-back pecking order.
Lovren is keen to leave the club and get more regular first-team minutes elsewhere.
And Roma appear to have won the race for his signature, with the Italian side poised to complete a deal worth up to £23m.
Lovren was left out of Liverpool's squad for the Super Cup victory over Chelsea (opens in new tab) on Wednesday as talks about his future intensified.
And the former Southampton man is edging closer to the exit door after five years on Merseyside.
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Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).