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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Sport
Will Castle

How transfer humiliation led Liverpool to their famed ‘finisher’ Wataru Endo

Wataru Endo Liverpool Moises Caicedo Romeo Lavia EPL Arne Slot Bundesliga Chelsea Stuttgart Ryan Gravenberch
Wataru Endo played a small but invaluable part in Liverpool’s title-winning season - (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Wataru Endo was not meant to be a Liverpool player.

During the club’s midfield overhaul of 2023, Endo was not Liverpool’s first choice. Nor was he their second. Their transfer policy that summer focussed on the young and promising, preferably Premier League proven, with high ceilings to smash. Endo, then the 30-year-old captain of Bundesliga strugglers Stuttgart, did not fit that criteria.

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