2023-08-18 07:46:00
Déjà vu of the bitter kind for Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool FC. The team manager must feel like he’s in the wrong movie these days.
Within a week, the Reds were outdone twice by Premier League rivals FC Chelsea in the courtship of a defensive midfielder.
Klopp had already announced the transfer of Brighton’s Moisés Caicedo almost a week ago. The clubs agreed on a record transfer fee of 116 million euros plus up to 17 million euros in bonuses.
In his inimitable way, Klopp followed his announcement with a “don’t praise the day before the night” (German: “One should not praise the day before the evening”) with a smile. He froze at the latest when he found out following the 1-1 draw once morest Chelsea that the deal had actually fallen through at the last second.
A transfer embarrassment that the whole of England is currently laughing at. Liverpool, it seems, has lost some of its transfer mojo of recent years.
Carragher criticizes Liverpool’s transfer policy: “A joke”
Don’t get me wrong: There’s no shame in being outbid by Chelsea, who are throwing around high salaries and eight-year contracts.
It’s much more the circumstances of the botched deals that annoy fans and experts. According to “The Athletic”, Liverpool were initially unwilling to pay the required 58 million euros for Lavia. Instead, they gambled and hoped that Southampton would move away from the original demand. Only when Chelsea got involved did they follow suit. Too late.
“They bid £60m for Lavia today following they were unwilling to pay £50m four or five days ago. It’s a total mess and a joke,” said former defender-turned-TV pundit Jamie Carragher at “Sky Sports” hard with his ex-club and spoke of a “fiasco”.
One thing is clear: Liverpool were caught off guard by the departures of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho to Saudi Arabia. Apart from youth player Stefan Bajcetic, there was suddenly no so-called “Holding Six”, no defensive midfielder, who is also so urgently wanted by FC Bayern Munich, in the squad.
“They still have to find someone for midfield. But everyone knows that they are desperate,” says Carragher, describing the dilemma that has now led the Reds to take a surprising step.
Endo transfer nearing completion: Liverpool deviate from plan
VfB coach Sebastian Hoeneß also confirmed on Thursday that the Japanese was released “for talks and the medical check”.
Wataru Endo is regarding to move from VfB Stuttgart to Liverpool FC
Fotocredit: Getty Images
An approaching change that caused some consternation on the island. Endo fits into the scheme in terms of position, but at the age of 30 he is already at an advanced footballing age and thus represents a completely different prey scheme than Caicedo and Lavia has no experience at European top level.
According to “Bild”, Liverpool’s sports director Jörg Schmadtke, who is well connected in the German upper house, arranged the deal. Endo would be the third new signing this summer. An exit clause had been drawn for Dominik Szoboszlai (70 million euros from Leipzig) and Alexis Mac Allister (for 42 million euros from Brighton).
Liverpool take no chances with Endo
At least with the transfer, the LFC did not take any risks this time. Including possible bonus payments, up to 25 million euros are to be transferred to Bad Cannstatt for Endo. For comparison: “Transfermarkt.de” estimates the market value of the midfielder at 6.5 million euros. Hoeneß also spoke of an “economically good package” from a Stuttgart point of view.
On paper, the Endo commitment actually looks a bit like an emergency transfer that only came regarding because the actual dream players decided once morest Klopp and Co. However, that doesn’t have to mean anything.
In 2017, Julian Brandt was at the top of the English list. Because the deal fell through, a reorientation was made and a certain Mohamed Salah was hired instead.
The end of this success story is well known.
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