Duje Caleta-Car has opened up on his failed move to Liverpool as Southampton prepare to head to Anfield tomorrow.
Caleta-Car almost joined Liverpool during the 2021 January transfer window as the club looked to sign reinforcements to help address their defensive crisis. Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk were all sidelined at the time.
The 26-year old was at Marseille Provence Airport ready to fly via private jet to Manchester to complete a permanent move to the Premier League champions but never boarded the plane.
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Reports from France have long claimed that the Ligue 1 side were concerned they would not have the time to replace Caleta-Car before the deadline and pulled the plug on a deal. The Reds instead signed Ben Davies from Preston North End and Ozan Kabak from Schalke.
Caleta-Car eventually got his move to the Premier League this summer as Southampton spent around £8.5million to bring him to St Mary's, with the defender making seven appearances so far on the south coast.
"It happened really fast," he told HampshireLive when asked about his failed transfer. "You know, they get a lot of injured players - central defenders - so my agent called me and said to me Liverpool is there.
“They are something different and I wanted to join them because Liverpool is one of the biggest clubs in the world.
"But it didn’t happen. There was something between Marseille and Liverpool but I don’t want to go into what happened. But now I’m here [at Southampton] and really enjoying it here in England. We play against Liverpool now so it’ll be a good test."
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