‘Exceptional’… Jurgen Klopp says he’s so happy Liverpool have 30-year-old player now

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Jurgen Klopp has praised the business Liverpool managed to pull off during the summer transfer window.

The Reds had one of their busier windows of recent times this year, signing four brand new players.

So far, all of Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo have been hits. However, it was nearly very different for Liverpool. Back in August, they appeared to be on the verge of signing both Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia.

In the end though, both players turned the Reds down, signing for Chelsea instead. Since then, things haven’t exactly gone to plan for Caicedo and Lavia, with the Blues sitting in 12th placed in the Premier League.

Liverpool on the other hand are top of the pile. And speaking at a test event for Liverpool’s new Anfield Road stand via Beanymansports last night, Klopp cheekily declared the Reds to have had a ‘lucky’ escape. Having made a slight dig at the Chelsea pair, Jurgen went on to give a special mention to Endo in particular.

“We found Endo and he is an exceptional player, he is absolutely,” raved the boss. “He’s 30-years-old, experienced with Japan. The transfer market is like that, you don’t go for a 30-year-old player who plays in Germany and nearly got relegated but thank God we looked about things twice. He wanted to come definitely and that helps.”

Klopp aims Caicedo dig

If you’ve been on Twitter over the past 12 hours or so, then you won’t have missed Klopp’s barely veiled comments about Caicedo and Lavia.

“In the summer we had with a few strange things happened in the transfer market,” said the Liverpool manager. “But here between us I can say my god we were lucky there! We didn’t realise it in the moment, but… yeah, I’m really happy that it worked out like that!

“We had a really good feeling before we started the pre-season, Macca and Dom were already in. We knew there’s a chance for Ryan then we obviously realised that other central defensive midfielders don’t want to join Liverpool! You see what happens…”

This has obviously enraged Chelsea fans, but we think it’s absolutely gold from Jurgen. There was no real reason for any midfielder to turn Liverpool down to move to Stamford Bridge this summer.

Despite a poor season, the Reds were obviously in much better nick than Mauricio Pochettino’s side. There was also the rare possibility that whoever joined as a defensive midfielder would pretty much walk straight into the side.

In a purely footballing sense, there was absolutely no logical explanation for what Caicedo and Lavia ended up choosing this summer.

It must be said that it’s still early days for both of them at Stamford Bridge, and Klopp obviously knows that too. But six months in, and Chelsea are having a miserable campaign. Caicedo has struggled and Lavia is still yet to make his Blues debut. Had they joined Liverpool instead, it’s likely they’d be in a much better place right now.

Still, there’s no use harking after what could have been. As Klopp points out, Endo jumped at the chance to join Liverpool and is proving his worth as a tidy acquisition. We wouldn’t have had it any other way.