Liverpool scouts in the stands in Europe
The most told transfer story of Saturday’s gossip columns starts in the Europa League. Liverpool watched Netherlands midfielder Kees Smit live when AZ Alkmaar faced Sunderland this week, and the presence of top-tier scouts at a midweek European fixture is rarely an accident.
They were not alone. Chelsea, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa are all reported to be keeping tabs on the 20-year-old, whose valuation in the market conversation has already reached £51.5m.
Why the summer move never happened
Smit had been expected to move during the summer window, but no transfer materialised despite strong interest from clubs across Europe. His situation was complicated by World Cup disappointment: he was not included in Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands squad, which removed the platform a tournament provides for a mid-career step up.
That stalled summer is now January’s opportunity. A player who expected to leave, at a club accustomed to selling at the right moment, with half a season of Eredivisie and European football left to audition. AZ have a long record of extracting maximum value, and a bidding war between Premier League clubs is exactly the scenario they price for.
What the model says
The skouted.ai model rates Smit at 73 OVR with a market value between €5.3M and €8.5M. The gap between that figure and the £51.5m number circulating in reports is the story in itself.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| skouted.ai OVR | 73 |
| Model market value | €5.3M – €8.5M |
| Reported valuation | £51.5m |
| UV score | 60 |
A UV score of 60 says mildly undervalued against his current output, a fair reflection of a young midfielder whose development curve is steep but whose sample at the top level is still one strong season deep. Clubs are not paying €60m for what he is. They are paying for what Eredivisie production lines have historically turned attacking midfielders into.
For every club other than the richest six in England, January is the wrong window to buy a £51.5m project. For Liverpool, who scout the Dutch league as systematically as anyone, the price of waiting until summer may be another club going first.
AI Verdict: Watch
The verdict here is watch, and it is a verdict about price, not talent. Smit is a genuine top-flight prospect with left-sided creativity and Eredivisie pedigree, but the gap between the model value and the reported fee is extreme. If AZ’s asking price softens toward a performance-based structure in January, this becomes a buy. At £51.5m, it is a bet only a handful of clubs can responsibly place.
View full profile and AI-powered transfer intelligence at skouted.ai