AGENT SAYS £116M STAR NEVER WANTED TO JOIN LIVERPOOL EVEN AFTER HUGE REDS BID AND MEDICAL DONE

When the news filtered through in mid-August – Sky Sports reporting that Liverpool had submitted a staggering £111 million bid for Moises Caicedo – Jurgen Klopp found himself facing some rather awkward questions.

The footballing world, Klopp argued, had altered quite a bit since 2016, when the motor-mouthed manager insisted that he would never look to bring in a player for a nine-figure fee in response to Manchester United’s signing of Paul Pogba.

“Everything changed,” Klopp sighed, seven years on. “Do I like it? No. Did I realise I was wrong? Yes. That’s the way it goes.

“In the end, we have to try and make sure we get the best possible team together.”

Moises Caicedo chose Chelsea over Liverpool

With four wins from their first five games of the new campaign, missing out to Chelsea for Caicedo’s signature is not yet proving to be the disaster some framed it as at the time – even if Klopp could still do with a natural ‘number six’ in his ranks.

But, having hit similar obstacles in their pursuit of Sofyan Amrabat, Mason Mount and Romeo Lavia (now Caicedo’s team-mate at Stamford Bridge), this was a summer which raised serious concerns about Liverpool’s pulling power in the market.

“The boy only wanted Chelsea,” Andrea Pellegatti of the EPIC Sports Agency tells Sport Italia. “(Chelsea) had started to show their interest consistently since January.”

Paul Barber, Brighton’s much-admired CEO, confirmed following the confirmation of Caicedo’s exit that the Ecuadorian – ‘for whatever reason’ – opted to reject the chance to become Liverpool’s all-time record signing.

Premier League record-breaker

“£116 million. Equivalent to 133 million euros,” Pellegatti adds. “(The transfer was) the result of hard work from the player, who quickly progressed in England after moving (on loan) to Belgium.

“With (Roberto) De Zerbi, he exploded. And then we arrived at Chelsea and Liverpool, who fought over him.”

£37M ACE EXPLAINS HIS DISASTROUS LIVERPOOL SPELL AFTER RECENT ANFIELD EXIT

Arthur Melo has been left bemoaning an injury which wrecked his hopes of making a name for himself at Premier League giants Liverpool during that infamous loan spell from Juventus. 

In hindsight, you didn’t need a crystal ball to see this one coming.

Arthur Melo arrived at Liverpool on the final day of the 2022 summer transfer window with a reputation for being more than a little injury-prone, and that tag will be even more difficult to shake off after a serious calf injury limited him to just 13 minutes of football under Jurgen Klopp.

In fact, the Brazil international featured more for Liverpool’s reserves than he did the first-team; Klopp unsurprisingly opting against triggering the £37 million option-to-buy clause in Arthur’s contract.

Injury ruined Arthur Melo’s Liverpool spell

“I was really excited about playing in a different league. Everything was going very well in a great team,” Arthur recalls, speaking to AS. “But I got an injury in training. It was hard. Mentally, very hard.”