Marco Rose says Liverpool target Josko Gvardiol will stay at RB Leipzig this summer
RB Leipzig manager Marco Rose has claimed that Liverpool target Josko Gvardiol will stay at the Bundesliga club this summer.
Rose said, via the Times (Subscription Required) [h/t Liverpool Echo]:
“Josko Gvardiol will be a RB Leipzig player next season as well. I am the coach and I am asking for that. He is happy here. He said he wants to play in the Premier League, but he didn’t say when!”
Gvardiol joined RB Leipzig in the summer of 2021 at a time when they lost Dayot Upamecano and Ibrahima Konate to Bayern Munich and Liverpool, respectively. What did he do that summer?
Straightaway admitted that he wanted to move to Liverpool and the Premier League in the future. Speaking to Sata24 (h/t Daily Star) in an interview published in June 2021, the Croatia international said:
“Since I was a little boy, my dad and I watched Liverpool matches, and I grew up with only them. When I took football more seriously, I started following them, and I definitely want the Premier League and Liverpool.”
That would have really been a blow to Leipzig, hearing that the player already carried bigger ambitions at the time he joined the Red Bull Arena outfit. Nevertheless, it is always a bonus when a player is outspoken about his interests, especially when it benefits the Reds.
The 21-year-old 2022 FIFA World Cup hero has a mammoth £98million release clause in his contract, which would automatically make him unaffordable for many teams. It wouldn’t have been a massive problem for us had we been free spenders under FSG.
But we clearly aren’t. The club has embarrassingly kept postponing signing a world-class midfielder and are apparently willing to sign the very talented but very expensive Jude Bellingham this summer.
More Liverpool News:
- Transfer News: Liverpool ‘monitoring’ PSG superstar Kylian Mbappe
- Liverpool dealt with N’Golo Kante blow as midfielder is set to sign a new deal with Chelsea
- Transfer News: Liverpool eye a move for RB Salzburg’s Luka Sucic
Good luck trying to sign him if you don’t have UEFA Champions League football or the money to satisfy Borussia Dortmund’s demands. If we have funds left over after that, perhaps signing a second midfielder would be advised. Only then should we start dreaming about a potential move for Gvardiol.
