Former Man City midfielder spotted chatting to Jurgen Klopp during Liverpool training yesterday

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Liverpool had a surprise visitor to the AXA Training Centre on Friday afternoon.

Just a week after former Manchester City player Joey Barton was spotted rocking up at the AXA, another man with City ties was at Liverpool’s training ground.

This time, it was Nigel De Jong, also of Netherlands, Ajax and AC Milan fame.

Quite what the 38-year-old was doing there is anyone’s guess. But he was spotted deep in conversation with Reds manager Jurgen Klopp during yesterday’s session.

With De Jong now the technical director of the Dutch FA, perhaps it had something to do with the current international standoff affecting Ryan Gravenberch.

Liverpool get surprise visitor

It’s always interesting to see who gets an invite to watch Liverpool in training Previous visitors include yet another former Man City midfielder – Yaya Toure, who was asked to come and watch a pre-season session back in 2021.

Toure has since gone on to work as a coach at Tottenham Hotspur, Belgian side Standard Liege and is now assistant manager to Roberto Mancini for the Saudi Arabian national team.

Clearly, for those like Toure and Barton who are trying to forge a path in coaching, watching a master like Klopp at work is as good as it gets.

But for De Jong, his purpose is surely slightly different.

It seems that the tough-tackling midfielder has no designs on heading into coaching. Instead, De Jong seems set for a path in the director’s box.

Of course, in his role for the Dutch national team, Liverpool do now have several players who will be of interest to him.

But it still seems slightly strange for an invitation to be opened out. Will we soon see visits from the Brazilian FA, or a Uruguayan delegate?

If the intention was to straighten out what’s going on with Gravenberch’s international career, then that is good news. But surely it can be taken care of away from Liverpool.

Either way, it’s interesting to see a new face at training. No doubt the reasons for De Jong’s surprise visit will become clear at some stage.