A report in the Mirror caused quite a stir last night amongst Reds who are becoming increasingly desperate for the club to sign Timo Werner…
Friend of EOTK and respected reporter Dave Maddock stated in unequivocal terms that Liverpool have pulled out of the race for the Rb Leipzig striker’s signature – because right now – we are unwilling to pay over £30m for his services given the drop in value of the transfer market due to the coronavirus.
Rb Leipzig on the other hand will flatly refuse to sell for anything less than his £50m-odd release-clause…
“Jurgen Klopp has been straight with the Germany international forward, despite expressing a long-term interest in signing him, by insisting the transfer market has been turned upside, slashing his potential value,” he writes – also stating that Werner can now decide whether to sign elsewhere or run down his contract in Germany.
Liverpool had hoped to raise plenty of funds this summer by offloading Xherdan Shaqiri, Marko Grujic and Harry Wilson, but their prospective fees have plummeted and we fear clubs will simply try to secure them on loan again.
Werner is a player Klopp loves, but if this report is to be believed, right now – Liverpool don’t believe he represents value for money.
We’ll play devil’s advocate here and suggest there is a possibility the club have released this information on purpose in order to drive the price down – in the knowledge that Werner wants to come to us and won’t sign elsewhere.
It might also be a delaying tactic – with the plan to buy Werner in January when the price will be lower as there’ll be another release-clause approaching in the summer of 2021.
This almost mirrors what happened when we went for Virgil van Dijk. One thing we will say, is that when Klopp decides on a target, he’s very patient and doesn’t mind holding out until they are available at the right price – so we wouldn’t say this one is over – not by a long shot.