Whether or not Liverpool are handed the Premier League title for the 2019/20 campaign, it’s a fairly safe bet that Jurgen Klopp will want to improve the squad for the beginning of next season.
Though the coronavirus will surely have put the squeeze on every club financially, Craig Burley believes that if the German goes out and buys not just Timo Werner, but Kalidou Koulibaly as well, it would be a real statement from the Reds and make them even more difficult to beat in 2020/21.
“If they were to go get those two players it would be a big statement,” Burley told ESPN FC and cited by the Daily Express.
“Particularly the Koulibaly signing, even though he is the older of the two. To go in there and cement a partnership, potentially a centre-half partnership with two of the greatest centre-backs of this generation, it would be a heck of a backbone to the team.
“The Timo Werner situation is that he would be fighting for a place. But he is adaptable, he is flexible and he can play in different positions.
“[…] But it would be a big statement from the Fenway group and Jurgen Klopp to say ‘listen, I know whatever has happened in the season, whether it is voided, finished or whatever. We put down a marker last year with our performances. We are not going to rest on our laurels, we are going to go out and try and improve this team and these are the guys we are going to go after’.”
Much is likely to depend on just how long the pandemic continues, because all the while there is no football and no paying customers, clubs are being forced to drastically revise their future cash projections.
Pre-virus, a swoop for the pair at the price quoted is unlikely to have been baulked at, but things have changed dramatically in quite a short space of time. That said, if both are genuinely available and willing to move, Liverpool would be silly not to at least be in the shake up for the signatures.