Liverpool close on £15m deal as manager admits captain is ‘difficult to replace’

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Stuttgart know it ‘will be difficult’ to replace Wataru Endo as their iconic captain closes in on a ‘dream’ £15 million move to Premier League giants Liverpool. 

If it wasn’t for the tireless Japan international, Stuttgart would probably be two games into their Bundesliga.2 campaign already.

Thanks to Wataru Endo – a leader on and off the pitch and a talismanic presence at the Mercedes Benz Arena – Die Schwabian’s can look forward to another top-flight season. Endo’s 92^nd minute, final day winner saved Stuttgart from the drop in 2022. And he played an equally-integral role in another dramatic escape 12 months later. 

So, with the late-blooming 30-year-old now on his way to Liverpool for around £15 million, Stuttgart coach Sebastien Hoeness is under no illusions that life without Endo will take some getting used to (The Guardian). 

Liverpool close in on Stuttgart captain Wataru Endo

“You have to look at the whole thing differently: We have a player who has the opportunity at 30 to move to Liverpool in the Premier League and fulfil his dream,” the former Bayern Munich reserve coach tells Kicker. 

“There was relatively little room for me to change anything.”

“I’m not going to start complaining. I said that to myself. We will miss him. Nevertheless, we trust ourselves to compensate for this, at least in the short term. It will be difficult to replace him like-for-like, but we will try.

“We are working flat out on it. There are possibilities. I have ideas in my head, but I don’t want to make them public.”

One of those ‘possibilities’ appears to be Angelo Stiller. The Germany U21 international worked with Hoeness at both Bayern and Hoffenheim. And Sky Germany report that talks to bring him to Stuttgart are now underway. 

Liverpool legend Dietmar Hamann, meanwhile, is backing the perennially-underrated Endo to ‘surprise’ his doubters at Anfield, with some underwhelmed by the club’s latest midfield target having missed out on Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Mason Mount, Jude Bellingham and more. 

Stuttgart could also lose Konstantinos Mavropanos this month. West Ham are in talks over a potential £17 million deal for the colossal centre-half.