On the day that Liverpool returned to first-team training, they won’t be pleased to hear that one of their rumoured summer transfer targets is being urged to stay at his current club.
Kai Havertz showed the Reds exactly why he is so highly-rated on Bayer Leverkusen’s return to Bundesliga action at Werder Bremen, the front man scoring two wonderful first-half headers and generally causing havoc each time he was in possession of the ball.
MORE: There was one notable absentee from Liverpool training
It’s that kind of inter-play and nous that’s made him the hottest of properties, but former Germany defender, Jens Nowotny, believes he needs more time with his current employers before being tempted by Premier League riches.
“He is on the way to becoming a world-class player. He has huge potential,” Nowotny told Goal and Spox,and cited by the Daily Mirror.
“Another year in Leverkusen would certainly not hurt him. For his personal development as a player and as a person it would be good for him to be in an environment in which he feels comfortable – and that’s the case in Leverkusen.
“Otherwise he would not have already spent 10 years at the club.”
Quite what Jurgen Klopp will make of such an intervention is anyone’s guess, suffice to say that Nowotny’s unlikely to be on his Christmas card list after this.
With a handful of other games to be played before the end of the Bundesliga season, the 20-year-old has ample opportunity to put himself in the shop window if that’s what he wants, though Nowotny’s words might well strike a chord.