Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Cody Gakpo never asked about the risk of Liverpool failing to qualify for next season’s Champions League during transfer talks ahead of his move from PSV Eindhoven.
The Dutchman finalised his move to Anfield earlier this month, joining the Reds for an initial £37m, and made his debut against Wolves in the FA Cup on Saturday night.
With Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota long-term absentees, the 23-year-old will be hoping to help score the goals to fire Liverpool back up the the table, with the Reds currently only sixth and trailing the top four by seven points after Monday's disappointing 3-1 loss to Brentford.
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Klopp has admitted before that he prefers to work with players who aren’t motivated purely by money or competing in the Champions League. And offering insight on private discussions he held with Gakpo prior to his Anfield transfer, he revealed the forward took very little persuasion to make the move to Merseyside.
“There were easier moments to join Liverpool,” Klopp told reporters on Friday ahead of the 2-2 draw with Wolves. “Last year! We were not qualified already for the Champions League but it looked like that would happen.
“This year we cannot guarantee that. But Cody never asked! From time to time, players ask. ‘Do you think you’ll make Champions League?’ Stuff like this. He can read the table himself so knew it would be a tight decision.
“What I really like about this is he’s obviously a guy who doesn’t want to jump on a running train, he wants to push the train. I like that a lot. Good for him as well because it always helps in life if you are a little bit like that...
“Could we be more successful on the pitch in the moment? Yes definitely, no doubt about that. Everybody knows we fight with all we have, for getting there again. We will get there.
“But it’s always tough in these moments and I really like the fact that he decided pretty quickly, ‘Yeah, that’s the right club for me.’ It speaks volumes about him.”
Meanwhile, Klopp said that he had no doubts about signing Gakpo after holding talks with the player, even though he wasn’t able to meet the forward face-to-face prior to him making the move.
“It wasn’t exactly like that (like it was when signing Gini Wijnaldum). Gini was in my house, it was not possible with Cody,” he explained when asked by a Dutch journalist about the transfer talks held between the pair. “We had a phone call, we had a long conversation in the moment when we were allowed to do that.
“It’s slightly different. When you sit together in a room, alone, then the conversation is different. That’s clear but it was not possible in this case, we had to do it differently.
“I really think all the things you can know about Cody Gakpo describe him as a very, very good person. He’s Eindhoven born and bred. There for years and years. Joined at eight or nine years old.
“Went through all the teams, all the ranks, became captain at the age of 22 or 23. That all says a lot about him. That’s what I knew before.
“Then you speak to the boy. Perfect English so it makes the conversation really easy in that moment. Then you see his face, the smile and the warmth is there.
“We had information from Virgil as well about him as a person. There were not only not a lot of doubts, there were no doubts at all. Yes, personality is very important I think. Not only in football but generally in life it is very important. I am very happy with the signing.”
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