£26m man explains why he once rejected Arsenal and Liverpool; shares what Mane said

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Rennes winger Jeremy Doku has no regrets about turning down both Arsenal and Liverpool during his time in Belgium, as he told Ouest France.

Five-and-a-half months after he moved from Anderlecht to Brittany in a club-record £26 million deal, the teenage forward finally showed Ligue 1 what all the fuss was about.

Doku scored his first top-flight goal at the 24th attempt as Rennes, who parted with influential coach Julian Stephan earlier in March, beat Metz 3-1 away from home on Saturday.

Big things were expected of the Belgian international when he graduated from the esteemed Anderlecht finishing school last summer.

But, after turning down two of England’s biggest clubs during his time at RCSA, it is safe to say Doku needs to add consistency to his speed and skill if he wants Liverpool or Arsenal to come calling again in the future.

“There are a lot of teams who have come to see me. Everyone talks about Liverpool because it was the most concrete but there were Arsenal and Chelsea too,” said Doku, who Kevin de Bruyne labelled ‘a diamond’ after he scored a stunning goal in Belgium’s 5-1 thrashing of Iceland recently.

“I was able to talk to Jurgen (Klopp), (Sadio) Mane, (Gini) Wijnaldum, (Steven) Gerrard too. I talked a lot with Mane but we didn’t really talk about football. We talked about everything.

“He asked me my age, he said to me: ‘You have to be nice to your mother’, it was a conversation and a human relationship above all.

“He told me that I was young, that I still had time – it wasn’t to convince me or to say to me; ‘Come here, you will succeed’.

“I know which route I had to take and I knew that at that point I had to stay at Anderlecht. And as soon as I am asked whether I regret (turning down Liverpool), I say no all the time.

“If they like me, they’ll come back later, that’s for sure. It’s up to me to be good.”

Speaking to Het Nieuwsblad last year, Doku’s father revealed that Klopp had planned to turn the quicksilver winger into Mane’s long-term successor at Anfield.