Jurgen Klopp makes Liverpool transfer confession which could’ve prevented ill-fated signing
Jurgen Klopp has named one player who he’d sought to sign for Liverpool in 2022, only for Bayern Munich to snap him up instead.
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Four years ago, the Reds had attempted to bring in Konrad Laimer (then of RB Leipzig) towards the end of the summer transfer window (Florian Plettenberg on X), but instead he stayed put for one more season before moving to Bavaria on a free.
The Austria international had played primarily as a midfielder at the Red Bull Arena, but has been used mostly as a right-back in Munich.
Klopp wanted to sign Laimer for Liverpool in 2022
Speaking on analysis for German broadcaster Magenta TV for Austria’s World Cup game against Argentina on Monday (via Bulinews), Klopp spoke of how he had wanted to sign Laimer as a defensive midfielder for Liverpool, only for his efforts to prove in vain.
The former Reds manager said: “I wanted to bring him to Liverpool as a number six, but then he went to Bayern. As for Laimer, I can say that, in my team, he would play as a number six.”
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How differently could things have worked out for Liverpool?
The unsuccessful pursuit of the Austrian felt like a sliding doors moment for LFC, who hurriedly brought in Arthur Melo on loan in the final hours of the transfer window. That deal was ill-fated from the start, with persistent injury troubles limiting the Brazilian to a solitary 13-minute appearance for the club.
That 2022/23 season also saw a marked decline from Fabinho, who’d hitherto been a rock at the base of our midfield; and that area of the squad was torn up and reassembled the following summer, with five exits and four new signings prior to Klopp’s final campaign at Anfield.
Laimer will hardly have any regrets over how his career played out since the Reds’ forlorn efforts to sign him, with the 29-year-old being a regular for Bayern throughout his three seasons with the club, winning two Bundesliga titles under Vincent Kompany.
In a parallel universe, he could’ve come to Liverpool in 2022 and gently phased Fabinho out of the line-up, and Klopp wouldn’t have tried to sign Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo (who both ended up at Chelsea) the following summer as he desperately sought a new defensive midfielder.
Latterly, Arne Slot may have seen him as a right-back rather than a number 6, which may have negated the need to bring in Jeremie Frimpong to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold, and would’ve given us a consistent right-back starter last season rather than all the chopping and changing with injuries.
It’s easy to ponder what might’ve been had Laimer ended up at Anfield, but maybe we’d never have signed Ryan Gravenberch in 2023 had the Austrian already been in situ. Every cloud has a silver lining, and all that.
