There is a strange cycle at Liverpool. When they appointed Gerard Houllier, the club signed a huge number of French players, including Florent Sinama Pongolle, Anthony Le Tallec and Bernard Diomede. Rafa Benitez's appointment heralded the arrival of a lot of Spanish players, most notably Luis Garcia, Xabi Alonso and, erm, Josemi.
That trend looks set to continue under Jurgen Klopp. The club have already confirmed the signing of German-born defender Joel Matip, and now it appears the club will add another German footballer this summer: Mario Gotze.
Gotze - despite scoring the winning goal in the 2014 World Cup final - has struggled to nail down a regular starting berth at Bayern Munich under Pep Guardiola. Gotze joined Bayern from Klopp's Borussia Dortmund after the 2013 Champions League final, which he watched as an injured and conflicted spectator in the Wembley stands. His unhappiness at Bayern means he will seek a summer transfer in the summer, with Dortmund interested in signing him once again. Klopp, however, is also vying for his signature at Liverpool, and it seems that Klopp's powers of persuasion will be effective.
Earlier this month, we brought you the news that Gotze and Klopp were on texting terms, and now it appears that they could be soon seeing each other on a regular basis.
Paul Joyce of the Express is reporting that Gotze favours a move to Liverpool to link up once again with Klopp, with Liverpool confident they can get the deal done for a fee between £15 and £20 million. Joyce is among the most reliable journalists covering Liverpool, with anything he reports invariably coming true. Joyce reports in tomorrow's paper that Gotze has "privately indicated" he wishes to move to Anfield. It ain't so private anymore.
The news has Liverpool fans extremely excited:
The 4 stages of Paul Joyce saying Götze wants to sign for Liverpool pic.twitter.com/rUM3sJrYwc
— Anton (@Antonstotle) March 28, 2016
While Liverpool are hardly stuck for dainty midfielders to play off the striker and between the lines (see: Coutinho, Firmino, Lallana, Henderson, Milner, Teixeira, Brannagan), Gotze would add class and - most importantly - an experience of competing for and winning major honours on a regular basis, something that is desperately missing from the squad at the moment.
[Express]
