Kevin De Bruyne ought to consider joining Liverpool this summer — if the Kop stars can afford him.
That’s the view of former Anfield strike ace Stan Collymore, who reckons the Reds’ history would make winning the top prizes even more special than winning them would be with Manchester City.
The hopes De Bruyne and his City pals had of completing a Premier League and Champions League double died on Wednesday night in heartbreaking circumstances, with Real Madrid scoring twice in stoppage time to force extra-time. Karim Benzema then put the tie in Real’s favour from the penalty spot and Carlo Ancelotti’s men held on to set up a final with Liverpool in Paris on May 28.
The best City can hope for now is to retain their Premier League title, although Jurgen Klopp’s Quadruple-chasing Reds still hope to have plenty to say about that.
On the back of City’s Champions League exit, Mirror Sport Collymore said: “In August 2020, I wrote a column saying Kevin De Bruyne should go to Liverpool and, of course, at the time the comments on it were all, ‘Ha ha ha, why would he want to go there?’ Well, those who took the time to reply are not laughing now and I can’t help wondering if it has crossed his mind that it might be time for a change.
“As a player, you know when you walk off the pitch whether or not you have had the impact you wanted to have on a game. And after City’s Champions League exit, I’m sure De Bruyne will have been looking around thinking, ‘Are other people as good as I am? Will they help get me to where I need to be? Do I need to go to a club which is a routine winning machine?’
“His effectiveness in the biggest one-off games for club and country is actually very poor and maybe it’s time for him to go to a Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich, a club, or more importantly organisation, that has that winning mentality which gets the best out of him. Look, Liverpool might not be able to afford his wages — City have the means to pay a player whatever he wants and my old club, big as they are, don’t.
“And he may well walk out of City one day saying, ‘I’ve won the lot here’, and I’ve no doubt City will ultimately win the Champions League. But the feeling of winning what he has won so far with City will not push him anywhere near the heights he could still get to if he was with one of those other clubs because of their histories. The difference is palpable and I wonder if KDB, who is from a family of Liverpool fans and whose hero was Michael Owen when he was younger, needs that now to become the difference in the biggest games.”
