When Liverpool confirmed they had agreed a deal with RB Leipzig to sign Naby Keita back in August 2017, the fee they signed off on would have been a club-record transfer.
The Reds committed to paying his £48m release clause, which wasn’t due to become active until the summer of 2018 when he actually moved to Anfield, along with a small premium on top, dependent on the Bundesliga outfit’s Keita-aided final league position in the 2017/18 season. Liverpool would ultimately end up paying £52.75m for the midfielder, but by the time he officially linked up with his new side, that transfer record had already been smashed by the £75m arrival of Virgil van Dijk the previous January.
Having had to wait a year to actually see Keita in red, Kopites were understandably excited. Manager Jurgen Klopp had talked him up extensively and the unique nature of the deal agreed made it clear just how desperate Liverpool were to sign the Guinean. They had, after all, seen two bids rejected, with the second understood to be around £70m, for an immediate transfer before settling on an unorthodox compromise.
Meanwhile, RB Leipzig CEO Oliver Mintzlaff would later confirm they had even fought off interest from the mighty Barcelona, who back in 2017 had not yet publicly had their wings clipped by a dire financial situation, to land the highly sought-after midfielder.
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"FC Barcelona was interested in Naby Keita," Mintzlaff told German outlet Sport Bild. "That was confirmed to us also from Barcelona. However, they had apparently not given as much gas as Liverpool."
Handed the number eight shirt at Anfield, last worn by the legendary Steven Gerrard, Keita was seen as a transfer coup. But despite winning every major honour with the Reds over the past five years, the 28-year-old, despite his legions of supporting fans, ultimately struggled to live up to such lofty expectations.
Leaving Liverpool on a free transfer at the end of his contract this summer tells its own story. The Guinean should be at the peak of his powers, and that is exactly the player they needed in an underwhelming, transitional campaign, but instead his final campaign at Anfield was his most disappointing.
Featuring just 13 times because of injury, he would start just three times in the Premier League while his last Reds appearance came in late February when he was substituted at half-time away to Crystal Palace following a dismal showing. The fact that such a season came off the back of his most impressive year on Merseyside, making a Liverpool-best 40 appearances as Klopp’s men nearly delivered an unprecedented quadruple, made such a decline even more frustrating.
Klopp would defend the Guinean after it was confirmed he would be leaving Anfield at the end of his contract, conceding how injury had ultimately curtailed Keita’s progress.
"When people think about Naby, they probably think a few too many injuries in the time as well,” the German admitted last month. “But, when you look back at important games, you will realise how often he played in super important games for us and how often he performed in these games.
"Naby, everybody knows we spent a lot of money, there were a lot of expectations there of course. Because of injuries in the wrong moment, he could not fulfil all of them, but a lot of them.
“Go back and look at the big, big games. The goals he scored, the games he played, and the football he could play in his good moments.”
Meanwhile, Klopp would double-down on such sentiments when speaking to the club.
“Naby is an exceptional footballer, what a player he is,” he said. “Maybe one or two injuries too many just hindered him from getting really through.
“But if you go through – and I would really recommend that – if you go through our really big games of Liverpool FC you might be surprised how often Naby was in the starting line-up and how often he played incredibly well.
“It was a bit a shame, when it was really going well then a little injury here, a little muscle thing there. That was not too cool and that is probably what people might remember as well, but in his moment he is world-class, without a shadow of a doubt.
“And I wish him the best of luck because he as well won absolutely everything here at Liverpool, which not a lot of people can say.”
Yet it would seem those injury concerns outweigh the sporadic big moments. Where once Keita had Liverpool and Barcelona fighting for his signature and saw a £70m bid rejected, he has now joined Werder Bremen on a free transfer. And according to reports, he has taken a massive pay-cut too, with his three-year deal said to be worth roughly £30k-a-week.
Last Bundesliga champions in 2004, Bremen were Champions League regulars until 2011. But since then, the German outfit have ultimately declined. A DFB-Pokal win in 2009, the same year they were UEFA Cup runners-up, remains their last piece of silverware, while they even suffered relegation in 2020/21.
Sure, they would secure an immediate return to the Bundesliga in 2021/22, finishing as runners-up to Schalke. Yet as they were competing for promotion, Keita was lifting the League Cup and FA Cup, and competing in a Champions League final as Liverpool’s quadruple charge fell agonisingly short.
Twelve months ago a transfer to Werder Bremen would have never been on his radar. Even considering his injury woes, a switch to a 'lesser' side in the lower depths of the Bundesliga is still a surprise.
Bremen would finish 13th this season, three points above the relegation play-off place and five points clear of the drop. With Keita very much a marquee signing, it’s clear he’ll be tasked with helping restore Bremen to their former glory.
They can only hope he is much more durable for such efforts than he ever was at Anfield. At least he already speaks German and is already well aware of the demands of the Bundesliga.
After all, the language barrier was said to be a ‘recurring problem’ in England, with The Athletic reporting that the player himself admitted he struggled with the greater intensity and physicality of Premier League football.
"I’m really excited for my new challenge here in Bremen," Keita told Werder Bremen after his move was confirmed. "I was impressed by what the club told me about the setup here and Werder’s style of play.
"The coach gave me a really good feeling and showed how I can help the team. Werder is a special club and I know the Weserstadion from my time with Leipzig. This club and its philosophy will be a good match for me, so this is the right step for my career."
‘Step’ is perhaps the crucial word in such a statement. While Keita should be at the peak of his powers as a 28-year-old, he ultimately has it all to prove back in the Bundesliga. His Liverpool move did not fully go to plan, and he will be determined to rediscover the form that made him a highly-coveted star that the Reds spent over £50m on in the first place.
While Bremen bosses have hinted that they have fought off interest for Keita, the fact that they have seemingly landed his signature on such reduced terms perhaps suggests otherwise. Regardless, it is a sign of how far his star has fallen, despite his trophy-laden years at Anfield.
Now competing on a very different stage, perhaps Keita will thrive as a big fish in a smaller pond in more familiar surroundings. Yet if his move to Bremen is a success, and a step back to the top, that will only create a greater sense of what could have been at Anfield.
In truth, Keita is fortunate that his Liverpool career spanned the era that it did. A vital part of the Reds side on his day, he did contribute as Klopp’s men conquered England, Europe, and the world.
But they never had to rely on him fully, with another quality littered around the squad to ensure Liverpool soared regardless of his presence. Where Kopites once thought he could be a marquee player, in truth he was rarely anything more than a luxury.
If you insert him into any other Reds side in the Premier League era, Keita’s legacy would be very different. Consider the big-money signings of Andy Carroll and Alberto Aquilani, who were also plagued by injury, or the dismal arrivals of El Hadji Diouf, Salif Diao, and Bruno Cheyrou in 2002, and the likes of Mario Balotelli and Lazar Markovic in 2014 when Liverpool tried in vain to take those next title-chasing decisive steps.
All have been written off as flops, many big-money write-offs too, with little to show for their Anfield careers. When the Reds needed such significant signings to step up, Liverpool fell horrifically short. If placed into any of these sides and suffering the same individual fate, Keita would perhaps be remembered the same.
Yet the Reds’ success and stability afforded him more longevity, as did his superior talent. As his team-mates soared, he did his part without an over-reliance on his shoulders. Even if that A-list reliance was arguably what was expected of him when he first walked through the door.
Keita and Liverpool’s success rightly spares him from being labelled a ‘flop’, discarded on a list with the aforementioned disappointments. But instead he’s the Reds’ biggest enigma, in a league of his own leaving behind nothing but unanswered questions.
Now a former Liverpool player, Keita has and will continue to split opinion like no other. While the hype and £52.75m price-tag earned him unwavering support, so too did it bring increased scrutiny and frustration with each new injury. Where did it go right, yet where did it go wrong?
Regardless, Reds fans will be unified in watching on with interest to see how he fares at Bremen, wishing the best for their baffling favourite while pondering, more than with any other player, what could have been.
It’s a strange notion, considering Keita departs with every winner’s medal around his neck. And while he can be content with delivering exactly what he would have set out to achieve when first joining Liverpool five years ago, you can’t help but feel it could, and perhaps should, have been more.
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