When Jeremie Frimpong appeared to throw open the door to a summer move to Liverpool – potentially following in the footsteps of his Bayer Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso – it was tempting to suggest that the Merseyside giants should simply leap at such an opportunity.
Jeremie Frimpong, after all, is a key cog in Alonso’s whirring Leverkusen machine, mass-producing wins at a remarkable rate. The £34 million man is one of Europe’s fastest footballers, a constant threat with his direct running and ever-improving end-product, and has stumped up 19 goals or assists from 28 appearances this season alone.
One of those goals, meanwhile, was a remarkable run and finish from nearly hte halfway line during that 3-0 trouncing of Bayern Munich.
A strike which looks destined to go down in Leverkusen folklore if Alonso’s side – now eight points clear – can avoid the sort of springtime capitulation that Borussia Dortmund have made an almost annual tradition in recent years.
Jeremie Frimpong opens door to Liverpool move
And, when asked by Ziggo Sport about the prospect of following Alonso to Anfield – the Spaniard has been installed as the club’s first-choice target to replace Jurgen Klopp, Frimpong said; “Liverpool? A great club, with history.
“That would be great. Who knows what the future will bring.”
There is, however, one rather obvious problem. Liverpool’s squad is arguably at it’s strongest in the right-back spot. Trent Alexander-Arnold remains perhaps the finest right-sided full-back in world football. Conor Bradley’s startling emergence into the first-team picture, meanwhile, is reminiscent of Alexander-Arnold’s early days under Klopp, the 20-year-old academy graduate impressive once again during Saturday’s 4-1 win at Brentford.
And then there is Joe Gomez. The versatile, long-serving defender who has been a man revived in recent months, albeit on the left rather than the right.
Klopp was also full of praise for the ‘exceptional’ Curtis Jones after the recent 3-1 victory over Burnley, the midfielder forced into an unfamiliar defensive role for 45 minutes.
No place at Anfield for the flying Dutchman
“Think back in the summer (of 2023), I think there were quite a few people who said we need another right-back for different reasons,” Klopp told TNT Sports after Bradley scored a stunner in that hammering of Chelsea..
“We really were very positive about Conor like we were about (Jarell) Quansah. I think (Bradley has made) a really big step.”
Had Bradley not blossomed so rapidly into a proven and reliable member of Klopp’s senior set-up, then Liverpool may have been tempted to test Jeremie Frimpong’s Leverkusen loyalties. For now, however, while Alonso may be the right man at the right time in the post-Klopp era, it’s hard to make a similar argument for the rampaging right-back.
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