Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp didn’t hesitate when naming the two Premier League players he regrets never signing during his career.
Klopp stepped down from his role in charge of the Reds last summer after nearly nine years at the helm.
The German won a Premier League and Champions League title with Liverpool, and rejuvenated the club after years of mixed results.
He signed the likes of Alisson, Mohamed Salahand Virgil van Dijk, who all remain key players for Liverpool, while bringing through the likes of Curtis Jones, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Conor Bradley through the club’s youth system.
In his last season in charge, Liverpool splashed out on four new midfielders – Wataru Endo, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch – to refresh an ageing part of the side.
Prior to that, Klopp – who is now the Head of Global Soccer at Red Bull – spent seven years at Borussia Dortmund, taking them from Bundesliga mid-table to being regular contenders for top domestic and continental honours.
He brought in the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Marco Reus, Mats Hummels and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who all played significant roles for the club in their rise.
But for all his incredible transfer deals – of which there were many – Klopp still regrets not signing three Premier League players during his managerial career, though he did sign one of them eventually when he was appointed at Liverpool.
Speaking at a recent event, Klopp said: “There’s a Dortmund supporter in here – I have to apologise to him. Because I didn’t sign Sadio Mane for Dortmund.
“I could say I was young and naive at the time. But I wasn’t that young, and not that naive.
“I realised when we then took him to Liverpool, ‘That’s a lot of money for a player I could have signed a few years ago for a lot less’.
“I could’ve signed Son from Tottenham. At that time, he was at Hamburg. Just facing him in the Premier League, I thought ‘My God, you dumb s**t [for not signing him for Dortmund]’.
“Kevin De Bruyne was that close. Then he smashed us in the cup final with Wolfsburg, so that was a double minus.
“Though I don’t think [otherwise] it generally makes too much sense to regret stuff, but you did the best probably at the time, so deal with it.”
