Liverpool agree in principle to pay Aston Villa £32.5m for Christian Benteke

Christian Benteke scored against Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-finals last season to help Aston Villa to a 2-1 victory. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian 

Liverpool are set to take their summer spending to around £80m after agreeing in principle to meet Aston Villa’s asking price for Christian Benteke.

The Belgian striker has a release clause in his contract set at £32.5m, and although Liverpool were originally trying to negotiate a transfer for a lower fee, they appear to have rethought their strategy following the sale of Raheem Sterling to Manchester City and indicated a deal could go ahead for the full amount. Sterling was sold earlier in the week for £49m but a sell-on agreement with his former club Queens Park Rangers worth around £10m meant Liverpool received considerably less than that amount. Although they may have felt their hand forced by interest for Benteke from elsewhere, stories linking the Villa player to Manchester United are apparently without foundation.

Brendan Rodgers needs a reliable striker, with Daniel Sturridge still recovering from surgery, and Benteke fits the bill, though Rodgers may initially struggle to sell the signing to his own supporters after the club’s change of heart over his value makes it look as if Liverpool have paid over the odds. A Belgium international with 24 caps, the 24-year-old has scored 42 goals in 88 appearances since joining Villa from Genk in 2012. That is a more than respectable record for a side operating at the lower end of the Premier League, and Liverpool will hope Benteke can continue or even improve with better players around him.

It is no secret that Liverpool never satisfactorily replaced Luis Suárez in terms of the goals he contributed, and with Sterling gone and Sturridge only managing 18 games last season Rodgers could not afford any more delay, even if forwards Roberto Firmino and Danny Ings have been signed in this window.

Benteke is not quite in the class of the strikers Liverpool have lost and may be overpriced to a certain degree, but Rodgers has to be realistic now that the club can no longer offer Champions League football and Sterling engineered himself a move away from Merseyside.

Liverpool have spent £12.5m on Nathaniel Clyne this summer, are prepared to pay up to £29m to Hoffenheim for Firmino, and have signed Ings from Burnley for a fee due to be set by tribunal. Rodgers did say this would be a quiet window after spending £110m last summer, mostly the proceeds from the sale of Suárez, though that was before he knew Sterling would be lining up for someone else in the new season. Liverpool are in Australia on a pre-season tour but their chief executive, Ian Ayre, who is with them, is confident negotiations with Villa can be handled from the southern hemisphere.