A desperate panic buy or an ingenious leftfield solution to a pressing issue?
As ever in the world of modern transfers, there appears little appetite to wait to see Liverpool’s imminent signing, Wataru Endo, actually play a bit of Premier League football before delivering an emphatic conclusion as to what the deal means for Jurgen Klopp.
There was an initial sense of shock mixed with hints of ridicule and even despair as the news emerged that Klopp had turned to the 30-year-old Stuttgart captain to bolster his midfield in the light of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho’s exit and being consistently outmanoeuvred by Chelsea in the market.
“We said sell Hendo, not buy Endo,” was probably the wittiest take as Thursday’s Anfield medical was confirmed.
There is no escaping the fact an £18 million transfer for a player who has somehow evaded the interest of those fighting for Champions League titles for the last decade stirs curiosity more than the blood.
When you have bid a British record £111 million in a failed attempt to make Moises Caicedo a midfield linchpin for the next decade, and then £60 million for Romeo Lavia to be likewise, a cut-price deal for someone so far off the radar he could be a stealth fighter demands trust in the judgement of Klopp and sporting director Jorge Schmadtke.
Klopp certainly still has that. Schmadtke — a temporary appointment due to the exits in successive summers of Michael Edwards and Julian Ward — is yet to convince he has the negotiating acumen required for such a hugely important position. For Liverpool to turn to the market Schmadtke knows best does nothing to douse the cynicism which followed the failure to lure Caicedo and Lavia. Namely, that when Edwards and Ward left, it was not only their contacts book that went with them, but their ability to get Klopp close enough to seduce prime targets with months, possibly years, of groundwork with the deal makers. Schmadtke, under pressure to deliver in the final weeks of this
window, has naturally looked to his relationships in Germany to repair the reputational damage of the past fortnight.
