Chelsea forward Timo Werner has revealed how he TWICE nearly signed for Jurgen Klopp.
Werner, 25, first caught his fellow German’s eye when he was playing for Stuttgart and Klopp was in charge of Borussia Dortmund while Liverpool were also interested before his £53m move to Chelsea two years ago.
Germany star Werner said: “Of course Liverpool were also in my thoughts and were a big possibility for me, but at the end I decided for Chelsea and I won the Champions League title last year so it was not the worst decision!
“I think I have known him for many years before because when I was in Stuttgart he talked about going to Dortmund.”
Werner says Klopp is a world class manager but also insists that Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel belongs in the same bracket.
Werner added: “Jurgen Klopp is one of the best coaches we had in Germany. Not to attack our manager, but over the past year he won the most titles. But he has a very nice personality. A personality that the German people love because he seems like fun.
“Thomas Tuchel is also a brilliant manager. He won also a lot of titles. He is on a level now where when you say who are the best managers, you have only now Klopp, him and Guardiola maybe at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Werner has revealed how Chelsea’s stars stopped enjoying five star luxury on their travels because of the Government sanctions.
Chelsea players were used to travelling in style on two luxury coaches and also having late check-outs from hotels on night matches but that changed when restrictions were put on club owner Roman Abramovich.
Werner said: “For example, our bags and stuff had to be out of our rooms by 11am when we had a Champions League game where before our bags could stay in the room for as long as we stay in the room. It was little things which were a bit funny. Not things to worry about.
“We felt we couldn’t come to the game with two buses anymore, we had to be a bit closer together, we had to save money at some points which is different to what we were used to in the hotel and somewhere else.
“Of course we heard a lot in the press and the media. What’s going on, who is the new owner, what happens if we don’t find a new owner. I think the club did a very good job to keep everything away from us as much as possible.”
Elsewhere, Germany star Werner says he does not have time to get down about his misses in front of goal being shown on TV.
He said: “It’s always a bit weird when you have so many games, you have to switch from a bad mood to a good mood for the next game.
“But it helps a lot to only concentrate on the next game and not be too excited or too frustrated over the last game and what happened.
“That’s not so bad because you have to always think about the next game, next game, next game and that maybe helps a bit to keep your head up. It can help your mental strength not to be focused on the past games.
“I think on the one hand, it’s good that we have so many games beacsue another game is coming, you can’t think about the last game. But on the other hand, you can’t celebrate a good game because the next game is coming.”
