Liverpool missed out on the signing of new Manchester City star Jeremy Doku earlier in his career, despite having ‘explicit permission to negotiate’ a deal for him.
That’s according to Het Laatste Nieuws, who cover his time at Anderlecht and the rapid rise that had Liverpool trying to secure his signature.
The 21-year-old joined Anderlecht as a youngster from Beerschot and ended up spending eight years at the club, moving up their various youth ranks into the first team in 2019.
He was often considered one of their brightest talents and starred in the first team, with a record of six goals and seven assists in 37 appearances in the first team.
That attracted ‘scouts from top European clubs’ as well as agents, who could all see the potential that he had.
He had a tour of Ajax and ‘then there’s Liverpool’, who the Belgium side gave ‘explicit permission to negotiate’ with the player in January 2018.
A loan deal for Lazar Markovic even ‘explicitly’ included a clause about Doku, with the Reds ‘rolling out’ their plans to the player, including their sporting project, a house, a school and a nice contract to go alongside it all.
A tour of Anfield and the club’s training facilities even saw the club bring out the ‘big guns’, in this case Jurgen Klopp, Simon Mignolet and Sadio Mane, to convince the player.
His father was convinced on the move, but the player wasn’t and eventually signed a new deal, being convinced by the likes of Romelu Lukaku to remain at Anderlecht and continue his development there.
He is now starring at Manchester City after a big money move in the summer, leaving Liverpool to look on longingly at a player they had in their clutches years ago.
