“Do I regret it? It’s always difficult to look back but if you ask me now then yeah, I should have joined Liverpool for sure. I just made a wrong decision but it’s not a regret.”
It’s six years since Mario Gotze rejected a move to Liverpool in favour of returning to Borussia Dortmund, having fallen out of favour at Bayern Munich. Jurgen Klopp had just come to end of his first season at Anfield and, having suffered defeat in both the Europa League and League Cup finals, wanted to reunite with his compatriot as he looked to kickstart his Reds revolution.
“We spoke back then about me coming to Liverpool,” Gotze recently admitted to the Daily Mail. “But I wasn’t in a state of mind where I could consider it, that’s why it didn’t happen.”
READ MORE: Bruno Fernandes might have decided Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane future at Liverpool
READ MORE: Liverpool signing 'died' during Melwood fitness test before recommendation led to £65m transfer
Had Liverpool won the 2016 Europa League final, they would have qualified for the Champions League. Instead, they prepared for a season out of Europe altogether while Dortmund competed on the continent’s biggest stage. You wonder if the Reds had actually qualified for Europe’s elite competition, whether the German would have felt in a position to consider such a move.
While Gotze might not regret snubbing a Klopp reunion, it’s easy for him to say he made the wrong decision in hindsight. Six years on from that season out of Europe and Liverpool are chasing an unprecedented quadruple, having been crowned champions of England, Europe and the world in recent seasons. In contrast, the World Cup winner is only just rediscovering his best form with PSV Eindhoven, having seen a metabolic disorder ultimately derail his Dortmund return.
A wrong move for Gotze turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Liverpool as Klopp looked to reinvent the Reds attack. Having also missed out on Alex Teixeira the previous January, they finally got their desired attacker by landing Sadio Mane from Southampton in a £36m deal in the summer of 2016 instead.
Now looking back, having seen Liverpool develop into this all-conquering machine under Klopp, you wonder where they would be had they not signed Mane and if Gotze had arrived instead. While the Reds are famous for their pacey attack, had the German been their marquee signing, their set-up would have proven to be rather different.
Meanwhile, it was a similar tale over the following 12 months as Liverpool looked to get back into the Champions League and Klopp looked to complete his attack, with Roberto Firmino and the soon-to-be wantaway Philippe Coutinho also on the books. Again the Reds boss would turn to his homeland before finding success elsewhere.
Julian Draxler snubbed late interest from Liverpool in January 2017 in favour of signing for Paris Saint-Germain. And despite taking his time to settle in France, he had no regrets about his decision to turn down the Champions League-less Reds.
EXCLUSIVE: Liverpool signed shy teen loved by German ultras for free and he become social media sensation
'MY GOD WHAT HAVE WE DONE': Jurgen Klopp regretted emergency Liverpool signing after hasty transfer deal
READ MORE: Alex Ferguson blanked Liverpool legend for '20 years' after overhearing private joke
“You know we have been in talks with some clubs in England as well,” he told the BBC World Service. “But this time I decided to make the decision as to what I feel and what I prefer for myself.
“There were some teams that wanted me from the Premier League but it was not like it was very, very close. Football is about making decisions and that’s what I did. I decided that PSG is the best club for me at the moment.
“It’s not about Jurgen Klopp, about Liverpool or about different clubs from England. It was just my opinion that I am the best player for PSG at the moment - so that’s what I decided.
“I chose a great new step in my career because PSG is a really, really great club . They have big goals, they want to reach big things and that’s why I want to be part of it. I did not - and will not - decide my club just for the money.”
The following summer Julian Brandt was the subject of Liverpool’s desires as Klopp continued to search for this elusive third forward. Yet, with a World Cup on the horizon in 2018, the winger decided to stay put at Bayer Leverkusen.
“My gut feeling and my head are telling me the time to move has not arrived yet,” Brandt, who would move to Dortmund in 2019, told Kicker. “I have to straighten things out in Leverkusen.
“Of course there are players who say a year without European football before the World Cup is good reason to move. But if you move to a bigger club a year before the World Cup, you risk taking time at first to settle which possibly means playing fewer games.”
Again Liverpool would have no regrets about either Draxler or Brandt’s decision. After all, having missed out on the duo, they ended up signing Mohamed Salah from AS Roma in a deal which would end up being worth £43.9m.
Now back in the Champions League with the Egyptian leading the line and, Klopp’s front three complete, the Reds and the forward have not looked back since. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
With Liverpool now competing for the highest honours on the highest stage, they’d have their pick of the players as stars queued up to move to Anfield. Yet it wouldn’t be until the summer of 2020, as Reds bosses started to prepare for life beyond Salah, Mane and Firmino, that they’d make their next big-money attacking signing.
However, it was partly dictated by the financial ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic as Liverpool again had to be patient before making their move. For most of the 2019/20 season, the Reds had looked front-runners to sign Timo Werner from RB Leipzig, only for a switch to suddenly no longer be feasible before the German’s £47.5m release clause expired with Chelsea instead swooping in June. Given his meagre seven Premier League goals for the Londoners over the past two seasons, again there are no regrets at Anfield.
Three months later and Liverpool were ready to make their move as they weighed up the likes of Ismaila Sarr and Jonathan David, before bringing in Diogo Jota from Wolves in a £45m deal. Like Mane and Salah before him, that move has paid off handsomely and then some.
Gotze might have made the wrong move back in 2016 but Liverpool certainly didn’t. And that remains the case now, with the Reds’ recruitment team getting it right time and time again over the years, with Luis Diaz merely the latest example.
His £49m arrival from FC Porto in January, stolen from under the noses of Tottenham, shows Liverpool’s transformation from 2016 is now complete. They are the club all players want to join. They choose who they want and strengthen accordingly, as opposed to the days of looking around elsewhere when alternative targets reject them. Given the Colombian’s start at Anfield, they continue to identify the perfect fits.
While Salah, Mane and Firmino’s futures might remain uncertain ahead of their contracts expiring in 2023, all the evidence points to the Reds getting it right once again when the time comes. Whatever the outcome regarding the trio next year, as was the case when they all joined in the first place, Liverpool will make sure they have no regrets.
