One former Bayern Munich midfielder has said that the sale of Ryan Gravenberch to Liverpool seems ‘incomprehensible to many’.
The £150,000-per-week Dutchman (Capology) joined the Reds from the Bundesliga champions on transfer deadline day in a £34m move (BBC Sport), having made just three league starts in just over a year at the Allianz Arena (WhoScored).
Torsten Frings was speaking to Sport1 about the 21-year-old’s switch to Anfield, which he believes took a lot of people by surprise but was understandable in the context of the player getting very little game-time in Germany.
The 46-year-old said of Gravenberch: “It is incomprehensible to many that such a young talent, for whom they paid a lot of money, goes to Liverpool – for an unbelievable amount of money, but you also have to understand the coach to a certain extent.
“If a player doesn’t fit into the philosophy, it might make more sense to tell the player that and then let him decide whether he tries to assert himself or look for the opportunity at another club.”
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Gravenberch had looked a hugely promising talent at Ajax, so it was surprising to see him being left on the fringes at Bayern, even allowing for the calibre of midfielders that Thomas Tuchel and his predecessor Julian Nagelsmann could call upon.
Liverpool will certainly feel that £34m was a very reasonable price to pay for a player who’d already represented two of the biggest clubs in European football, won four league titles and made 20 Champions League appearances (Transfermarkt).
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Compare that to the £58m deal that Chelsea agreed for Romeo Lavia, who might be a very good footballer but has still only had one season of senior experience (Transfermarkt), and that came in a Southampton team which finished bottom of the Premier League.
There may be plenty of Bayern supporters and former players/board members scratching their heads over the sale of Gravenberch, but their loss is Jurgen Klopp’s gain, with the Reds making the most of the 21-year-old’s peripheral status in Munich.