VfB threatens to lose the “Warrior”
Klopp finds his six in the Bundesliga basement
8/17/2023 8:34 am
Liverpool FC is under pressure. On the transfer market, which has long since become a competition of its own, two promising transfers have collapsed within a few days. Coach Jürgen Klopp and sports director remember the Bundesliga and find what they are looking for in the basement.
First it should be Moisés Caicedo, then Roméo Lavia and now it will be Wataru Endo. Liverpool FC with coach Jürgen Klopp has found what they are looking for in the Bundesliga basement. According to consistent media reports from England, the captain of VfB Stuttgart is about to move to the English Premier League. The 30-year-old only costs the Reds a fee of around 18 million euros, around 100 million euros less than Chelsea transferred to Brighton for Caicedo.
A bargain for Liverpool, a major setback for VfB Stuttgart, who recently confirmed the Japanese as captain. “He is our face, he is our warrior,” said coach Sebastian Hoeneß and looked optimistically into the future together. But the Stuttgart team will most likely be without their leading player and will have to find other ways in the new season to avoid another season in the bottom of the table.
The transfer is said to have been largely driven by Liverpool sports director Jörg Schmadtke. The former Wolfsburg boss unexpectedly came out of retirement this summer and signed a short-term contract with the Reds. “We’ll wait until the end of August,” the 59-year-old told Sky in July and reported that his job could end after the end of the current transfer phase.
Stuttgart are threatened with further departures
After the failed transfers of Caicedo, who had decided against Liverpool and for Chelsea despite an agreement between the clubs, and Laiva, not only Klopp but of course his sporting director came under pressure. With Endo, the Reds could now present a surprising solution from the bottom of the Bundesliga table.
Stuttgart is threatened with the loss of a club legend. The captain of the Japanese selection only switched to Canstatt on loan from VV St. Truiden in the summer of 2019. One year Stuttgart commit the midfielder firmly. His current contract runs until 2024. In a total of 133 competitive games for VfB, he scored 15 goals and prepared 12 more.
His goal to make it 2-1 against 1. FC Köln in injury time on the last day of the 2021/2022 season earned him a place in the ex-champion’s history books forever. The Stuttgart team secured direct relegation. He has already scored this season. The midfielder contributed a goal to the 4-0 win in the DFB Cup at lower-league TSG Ballingen.
Endo could not be the only exit from Stuttgart. Konstantinos Mavropanos, Borna Sosa and Serhou Guirassy are also repeatedly mentioned as possible departures. But probably none of the trio of change candidates will wear the jersey of one of the biggest clubs in the world in the future. That should be reserved for Endo.
Japanese are Klopp’s title guarantee
The upcoming change of the Stuttgart star arouses great anticipation among those Liverpool fans who draw hope from superstition. In his three previous championships at club level, Klopp has always had a Japanese in the squad. In Dortmund it was Shinji Kagawa in 2011 and 2012, in Liverpool in 2020 Takumi Minamino. After the 1-1 draw in the first game of the season in the Premier League at Chelsea, the Reds are expecting Bournemouth at Anfield this weekend.
After the departures of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, both of whom could not escape the calls of the Saudi millions, Liverpool FC had to completely revamp their midfield. With Argentinian world champion Alexis MacAllister and former Leipzig player Dominik Szoboszlai, Klopp has two relatively young players available.