In the summer of 2016, Liverpool were very heavily linked to young Polish midfielder Piotr Zielinski, but he eventually ended up at Napoli instead.
Liverpool plumped for Newcastle’s Gini Wijnaldum, which in fairness, wasn’t a bad decision, with the Dutchman playing an increasingly important role in our first-team this season.
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But Zielinski has gone on to do good things at Napoli and especially thrived under Maurizio Sarri, before the Italian moved to Chelsea.
When the transfer happened, Zielinski was co-owned by Empoli and Udinese, which made any potential sale complicated. Empoli president Fabrizio Corsi has explained how he believed Zielinski was Anfield bound and that he should have demanded more money.
“He was meant to play for Liverpool,” he told Calciomercato, translated by Football365.
“When he came to Naples, he had that option, but they did really well to convince him.
“I have a few regrets regarding him. He was decisive for us, but I didn’t ask for a ransom.
“I was working with Udinese’s interests in mind, who then had an agreement with Naples.”
Zielinski came off the bench versus Liverpool in our Champions League defeat a few weeks back, but this is no shame considering the likes of Allan and Marek Hamsik were starting ahead of him.
The midfielder controls the ball effortlessly and uses clever angles to move his team up the pitch with short passes.
Allan Rodrigues de Souza, who’s on our books but cannot get a work permit, reminds us of Zielinski, but is currently on loan at Frankfurt in Germany.