Jurgen Klopp admitted that the failure in their pursuit of Jude Bellingham forced Liverpool to go for Moises Caicedo, who ultimately ended up joining Chelsea.
Liverpool’s interest in Bellingham has been well-documented but the England midfielder decided to join Real Madrid instead last summer. This forced Liverpool to turn their attention towards Caicedo, who was heavily linked with Chelsea.
Liverpool submitted a record bid for the Ecuadorian midfielder, only to see the player choose the Blues instead and join them. Chelsea were also able to sign Romain Lavia, another player Liverpool were interested in signing.
Speaking ahead of the match against the Blues on January 31, as quoted by the Independent, Klopp admitted that they went in for Caicedo only after conceding defeat in the Bellingham pursuit. Klopp said that Caicedo had an agreement with Chelsea and Lavia had his own reasons for rejecting them.
“We were interested in Bellingham and realised it would not happen,” said Klopp.
“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.”
We are lucky we got Endo: Klopp
Klopp said that Liverpool got lucky in getting Wataru Endo in the end, who has turned out to be a success at the club.
“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 £100 million [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.”
