Speaking on Goal’s YouTube channel, Kenny Dalglish has explained that Jurgen Klopp actually wanted to sign Sadio Mane before he became Liverpool manager.
The Senegalese winger was on the German’s radar back when he was manager of Borussia Dortmund, but for one reason or another, he couldn’t get a deal over the line to sign the attacker.
Mane has been arguably one of the best players in the world since joining Liverpool, picking up a Premier League Golden Boot and helping the side reach two Champions League finals in the last three years.
The Reds can count themselves lucky that Dortmund didn’t finalise this signing during Klopp’s tenure.
“Sadio, he was looking at anyway when he was in Germany,” Dalglish said.
“He fancied him when he was at Southampton or somewhere else, so he had known them before, and the players who came in, they’re Jurgen’s type of people, type of players, so as I said at the time, we’re in very good hands.”
Michael Edwards gets so much credit for his work on recruitment at Liverpool, but it may be time to give Klopp a bit of adulation for his eye for talent.
Mane didn’t look like a world-beater before he joined Liverpool, netting just over double figures for Southampton in the Premier League, but Klopp clearly saw something in him at that time.
Some of his comments on Mane since signing him show just how well-suited the winger is to the manager’s system.
The German was clearly right about the Senegal international’s potential as well, as he’s now been transformed into one of the best attackers in the Premier League.
The idea of Mane playing at Dortmund is certainly an interesting one.
The speedster would have been playing in an attack featuring Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Marco Reus, and even the most hardened Liverpool supporter would admit that such a frontline would have been a delight to watch.
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