Liverpool’s biggest deal of the summer won’t actually come into effect until next summer when Naby Keita joins from Red Bull Leipzig for a club-record fee of £48m, but they could’ve easily missed out on the midfielder.
The Reds tried to get him in this summer and saw multiple bids in excess of £60m turned down for Keita who has a release clause of £48m activate at the end of the season.
Eager to get a deal wrapped up, Liverpool paid a premium of around £7m if reports are to be believes in order to enable themselves to secure Keita next summer, with the midfielder penning a pre-contract agreement.
Bayern Munich were in the race to sign Keita in a similar deal to the one Liverpool agreed but ultimately decided against the move, according to Kicker.
The report claims that Bayern were very close to a deal but pulled out because there was no injury insurance on the deal.
Should Keita suffer a serious injury in the 2017/18, Bayern would still have been liable to pay the £48m to sign him in the summer and who knows what kind of player they could’ve been receiving.
Liverpool do face the same risks that ultimately warned Bayern away from a deal but Jurgen Klopp has taken a chance that he will get through the season unscathed and who knows, maybe the Reds will push for him in January.
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