Liverpool stayed in the boat for more than £40 million in the summer, despite Jorg Schmadtke’s recommendation.
A recent report outlined why Liverpool failed to meet transfer targets in the summer despite being recommended to the club by Jorg Schmadtke. According to TEAMtalk, Reds sporting director Micky van de Ven defended the case, already eyeing a move for the Dutch defender to Wolfsburg in 2021.
The Merseysiders have even spoken to the Bundesliga outfit about the 22-year-old, whose representatives were “well aware” of LFC’s interest in him and ready to make a formal offer. However, Tottenham opened talks with the centre-back, who did not hesitate to approach Spurs at the time, and the north Londoners pounced on Liverpool to sign him for £40m at the start of August.
Schmadtke and Jurgen Klopp may be disappointed that the Reds could not move quickly enough to sign Van de Ven ahead of Tottenham, as the defender has started a promising life in England. He has a success rate of 93.5% in his first four Premier League matches. This figure was surpassed only by Joe Gomez (93.8%) (WhoScored) among players who started for Liverpool this season.
Adding to the feeling of missing the boat is the recent unavailability of Virgil van Dijk (suspension) and Ibrahima Konate (injury), leaving LFC short on centre-backs, who have thankfully stepped up admirably in the last two games. games Timing may have been the reason why the Reds didn’t go for Van de Ven. When he moved to Spurs, we focused a lot on adding midfielders to compensate for the unexpected losses of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho to the Saudi Pro League.
That could see defenders drop down the priority list, although it could be argued that if Liverpool really wanted the Dutch centre-back, they would have gone for him before Tottenham had the chance. Whatever the circumstances, the boat has now sailed, so if LFC are looking to add central defensive options in January, they will have to look elsewhere.