‘He wanted to come to us’ – former Liverpool target wanted to get out of Juventus agreement to join Reds says club coach

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Neto, Achterberg, Liverpool
BARCELONA, SPAIN - JULY 21: Neto Muara of FC Barcelona warms up prior to a friendly match between FC Barcelona and Gimnastic de Tarragona at Johan Cruyff Stadium on July 21, 2021 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Eric Alonso/Getty Images)

Goalkeeper coach John Achterberg has shared that Liverpool had been interested in signing Barcelona shotstopper Neto during his Fiorentina days.

The Brazilian goalkeeper eventually went on to play for Juventus before making a series of further switches to eventually end up in Catalonia as Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s understudy.

“We wanted to sign a new goalie to be in competition with Simon [Mignolet] and I liked Neto,” the Dutchman told The Redmen TV.

“He was at Fiorentina and we went there, we met his agent, we met Neto but he had already signed [an agreement with] Juventus.

“He wanted to come to us but he could not change it so he didn’t come in the end. He still wanted to come but obviously, it didn’t happen and he’s at Barca now.”

The Reds can have little in the way of complaints with the direction the club took beyond that point, of course, eventually signing Alisson Becker from Roma.

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With the Philippe Coutinho sale money allowing us to fund two of our most pivotal signings in the Brazil international and Virgil van Dijk, the prospect of competing for major honours undeniably became more realistic.

Though a solid option, Neto probably wouldn’t have necessarily offered a great deal more in the way of quality than Loris Karius prior to Alisson’s arrival in Merseyside.

Ultimately, we’re in a far stronger position when it comes to the No.1 spot than when Jurgen Klopp first took over the reins at Anfield, with highly-rated Irishman Caoimhin Kelleher acting as backup ahead of strong third-choice Adrian.

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