Graeme Souness believes the World Cup star would be a ‘risk-free’ signing (Picture: Sky Sports)

Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and the other top-four contenders have been urged to complete a ‘risk-free’ signing by Graeme Souness.

While top-level domestic football paused for the World Cup, clubs have been busy preparing for the January transfer window, with £295m spent in January 2021.

Clubs can be wary of splashing the cash in the winter window, believing players are often overpriced and fearing how new additions will fit in with a squad that has been together for at least five months.

But Souness has identified a player who has ‘very little risk’ and would comfortably slot into a top-four club.

‘The Premier League returns on Boxing Day and there will be a few coming back from the World Cup with their tails up, and some others in need of being picked up,’ Souness told the Daily Mail.

‘I bet there will be no player feeling more confident than Brighton’s Alexis Mac Allister. It is very easy to focus on how fabulous Messi was for Argentina, but in the games I covered, Mac Allister was their best player.

‘The ball he played for their second goal in the final, for Angel Di Maria, was sublime. Messi put him away around the corner. He took one look, had a couple more touches and never looked again before squaring the most perfect pass for Di Maria to put it past Hugo Lloris. Wonderful.

Alexis Mac Allister celebrates Argentina’s World Cup win (Picture: Getty)

‘He’s a top-four player and the big guys will be looking at him now and thinking, “We’ll have some of that”. He has proven he can play at the highest level and has already done it in the Premier League.

‘There is very little risk attached to this boy. He can create, score and works his socks off – that type of player, they are hard to find.

‘At 23, Brighton won’t be able to keep him for long and good luck trying to negotiate a new contract. I’m just disappointed he’s not playing for Scotland with a name like that!’

Mac Allister, who joined Brighton in 2019, was one of the stars of Argentina’s World Cup squad in Qatar, playing in six consecutive games after being left out of their opening defeat to Saudi Arabia.

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