Liverpool ignored 'difficult character' concerns to beat Man Utd to blockbuster transfer

It takes a long time to build a team capable of competing for the biggest prizes on offer. Arguably the most pivotal summer of Jurgen Klopp ’s reign from a transfer perspective occurred in 2016.

Better, costlier players may have been signed at other times, with the Reds setting positional transfer records for Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker in 2018. But only one window saw Liverpool recruit three of the team which would lift the Champions League in 2019, and it occurred eight years ago.

The club’s former director of research, Dr Ian Graham, has written about this period in his new book How to Win the Premier League. An excerpt in The Times has revealed the process which led to the club signing Joel Matip , Gini Wijnaldum and Sadio Mané in 2016, with the move for the latter proving potentially controversial.

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“It was music to my ears that he [Klopp] highly regarded the Senegalese forward Sadio Mané,” Graham wrote, while also noting that the manager was keen to sign his former player Mario Götze. He didn’t want to join, though, and Liverpool continued to monitor Mané after he had played well against it for Southampton.

“Eddy [ Michael Edwards ] did some due diligence on Mané’s character,” Graham continued. “We were dismayed to find the opinion was negative. At Southampton he was apparently unprofessional, late for training, and a ‘difficult character’”.

“Michael’s job is to weigh up these character references against the ability and fit of a player, and the finances of the transfer. He decided that the poor character reference was not important enough to stop the transfer and I’m very glad that he did.”

“It was a lesson that canvassing opinion about a player can lead to very unreliable information. Completely contrary to the character references Eddy received, Sadio Mané was one of the most intelligent, decent, professional and hard-working players we ever signed.”

The Senegalese forward might have moved to Manchester United instead in 2016, a terrible thought for Liverpool fans considering how successful he proved to be for the Reds. Graham revealed why Mané chose Anfield over Old Trafford.

“Years later, Eddy asked why Mané and his agent had made this decision. The reason was that they believed in Jürgen’s ability, in his enthusiasm for Mané, and they believed that something special was going to happen at Liverpool.” It was a smart choice by player and club alike.

Liverpool.com says: It seems hard to believe anyone could describe Mané as a 'difficult character' based on the dedication and hard work we saw from him at Liverpool. Few players contributed more to the success enjoyed by the Reds under Klopp.