The agent of Marcos Llorente has confirmed that he held talks with Liverpool over a move for the former Real Madrid midfielder before he made the switch across the Spanish capital to Atletico.
The 24-year-old was confirmed to have moved from the Bernabeu to their city rivals after coming through the Los Blancos youth system.
Having struggled to nail down a first-team role at Real, Llorente’s agent revealed he had discussed a potential move to Liverpool with the Reds but that the amount of midfield options already at Jurgen Klopp’s disposal meant a move failed to come off.
He told La Cadena SER: “All this started when (Zinedine) Zidane told Marcos that he was going to have a few minutes (playing time), that the best thing was to go out, and at that moment I started to work, to communicate with the clubs that I think have the profile that Marcos can do well.
“I talked with several clubs to let them know what had happened, the conversation that Zidane and Marcos had had, one of which was Liverpool, but Marcos’ position was covered and it was not a priority.”
Llorente managed to make just 16 appearances during the 2018/19 season at the Reds’ Champions League rivals, scoring twice.
Opinion
You can understand why Liverpool did not chase a deal for Llorente, as exciting a capture as he might have been. Jurgen Klopp has spent plenty of time recruiting and molding a midfield which meets his demands and the arrival of Fabinho last summer appeared to be the final piece of the puzzle. With the experience and guile of Jordan Henderson and James Milner coupled with the creative qualities of Georginio Wijnaldum, another midfielder would have been an unnecessary addition to the squad. Yes, Llorente could have brought something that the other might not be able to offer but these are the Champions League winners we are talking about. It would have been a mighty battle to try and usurp one of the current options from the starting XI and as such it makes sense this was not a deal the Reds spent time chasing. Maybe he will be able to prove what they missed out on at Atletico.
