9 months ago
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Jurgen Klopp has explained Liverpool tried to sign Moises Caicedo ahead of Chelsea last summer after missing out on signing Jude Bellingham.
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Liverpool revamped their midfield last year with Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo all arriving at Anfield following the departures of Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Naby Keita and Fabinho.
Bellingham was Liverpool’s top target heading into the summer but Real Madrid wrapped up a deal for the England international in swift fashion, announcing his arrival from Borussia Dortmund in June.
It prompted a rethink from Liverpool, who then turned their attention to Caicedo and agreed a fee of £111m with Brighton for his services. The Ecuador international rejected a move to Merseyside, however, joining Chelsea for a British record transfer fee.
Liverpool would miss out another midfielder in the final weeks of the window with Romeo Lavia also choosing a move to Stamford Bridge over Anfield.
Caicedo became the third midfield player to join a Premier League side for over £100m in the space of six months with Enzo Fernandez and Declan Rice also moving for nine-figure sums to Chelsea and Arsenal respectively last year.
Klopp recently suggested Liverpool ‘got lucky’ by missing out on Caicedo and Lavia, but insists his comments were not a criticism of the Chelsea pair but praise for the players he did sign last summer.
‘It was this night, I come in the stadium, the kids are playing and crowd is cheering – I forgot for 10 or 15 minutes I am a public person. So I thought: ‘Oh no, that will create a lot of headlines’,’ Klopp said.
He continued: ‘We were interested in Bellingham and realised it would not happen.
‘The whole market for No 6s went up. Two No 6s left our club. The market heated up. We thought we could maybe do Caicedo. We’d already done Mac Allister before. So we went in, he had an emotional agreement already with Chelsea and Pochettino. Then Lavia had his own reasons. So we were there.
‘Then we found our top solution. That’s what I meant [when I said], ‘we are lucky’. We found Wataru. All the time in our mind we had Stefan [Bajcetic].
‘It was not clear at that moment he was so badly injured he could not feature at all. We already knew Macca could play the position. Dom was always on my radar.
‘If one of the £100m [targets] had worked, there’s no chance to do another. So that door was open. That’s how it went. That’s what I meant when I said we are so lucky. Everything in the ‘if not’ scenario worked out.’
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