Jurgen Klopp explains ‘we were lucky’ comment following Liverpool’s aborted approach for Moises Caicedo, and says Jude Bellingham was his initial No.1 summer transfer priority.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has described why he felt “lucky” when Moises Caicedo joined Chelsea, despite missing out on Jude Bellingham.

Chelsea beat Liverpool to the acquisition of Caicedo, who joined the club for £115 million ($146 million). Klopp has subsequently appeared to poke fun at the Blues, claiming that his squad was “lucky” not to acquire the player, and he has now taken the time to explain his remarks, revealing that he was interested in signing Bellingham before he signed with Madrid.

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WHAT JURGEN KLOPP SAID

He told reporters: “We were interested in Bellingham and realised it would not happen. The whole market for No 6s went up. Two No 6s left our club. The market heated up. We thought we could maybe do Caicedo. We’d already done Mac Allister before. So we went in, he had an emotional agreement already with Chelsea and Pochettino. Then Lavia had his own reasons. So we were there.

“Then we found our top solution. That’s what I meant [when I said], ‘we are lucky’. We found Wataru. All the time in our mind we had Stefan [Bajcetic]. It was not clear at that moment he was so badly injured he could not feature at all. We already knew Macca could play the position. Dom was always on my radar. If one of the £100m [targets] had worked, there’s no chance to do another. So that door was open. That’s how it went. That’s what I meant when I said we are so lucky. Everything in the ‘if not’ scenario worked out.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Liverpool went on to splash out on midfielders Alexis Mac Allister, Wataru Endo, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch instead and Klopp currently has his team top of the Premier League table. However, the Liverpool boss may still rue missing out on Bellingham, as the England international has starred for Real Madrid, scoring 14 goals in 18 La Liga games.

WHAT NEXT FOR KLOPP AND LIVERPOOL

Klopp has announced he will leave Liverpool at the end of the season and will hope to add to his trophy collection before stepping down. The Premier League leaders return to action on Wednesday with a home game against Chelsea and Caicedo.