To be fair, if a German chap claiming he was Jurgen Klopp called us and said we wanted us at Liverpool, we’d be a little skeptical!
And this was exactly how Ragnar Klavan felt when he received the call from Liverpool’s manager over the summer.
In fact, according to the Telegraph, the Estonian got Klopp to send him a selfie as proof it was indeed our boss and not an impersonator!
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“Jurgen sent me a selfie to prove it was him,” says Klavan.
“I’d received the messages so I wrote back ‘I don’t believe you. I need proof’. He sent me the picture smiling.
“At first I couldn’t believe it. It was my dream to play in the Premier League for 22 years. Then you are told you not only have a chance to do it, but it is Liverpool. I was like ‘are you serious? This is really happening?’
“I never thought of the possibility. There are some players who are always asking their agent ‘is anyone interested in me? Tell me, tell me’.
“I always told my agent that if there is something real and 100 per cent sure you can tell me about it, but I don’t want to hear about maybes.
“What is interest nowadays in football? Interest could mean you are in a list of 20 players. I had no idea Klopp was looking at me.
“I didn’t need convincing. I told the manager straight away if there is a chance to come, no other club interests me.”
The 30-year-old, who has over 100 caps to his name, started the season in Liverpool’s defence alongside Dejan Lovren – but with the team conceding five goals against Arsenal and Burnley – he may now make way for Joel Matip, who’s fully fit and raring to go.
With Mamadou Sakho expected to leave on loan though, Klavan will play an important role – being one of three senior central defenders available to the manager.
Klavan’s hard as nails and relatively composed on the ball, but will need to cut out the defensive mistakes we saw at Turf Moor last weekend. Liverpool badly need a watertight defence this campaign, as the number of goals we concede when dominating matches is worrying.