David Lynch has a theory on why Liverpool’s pursuit of Wirtz won’t be a repeat of Caicedo fail | OneFootball

Some Liverpool fans may be following the Florian Wirtz transfer tale with a sense of trepidation, despite several reliable reporters strongly hinting that the deal is likely to materialise.

The Reds have been working on a move for the Bayer Leverkusen star for several weeks but have yet to strike an agreement with the Bundesliga club, although the 22-year-old is very keen on coming to Anfield.

Kopites will recall how the Merseysiders had agreed a fee of £111m with Brighton for Moises Caicedo two summers ago, only for the Ecuador midfielder to instead sign for Chelsea, who’d always been the player’s preference (The Guardian).

Liverpool backed to succeed with Wirtz where they failed with Caicedo

Liverpool-focused journalist David Lynch has explained why, despite that failed pursuit in 2023, the Reds are unlikely to hit a similar stumbling block in their attempts to sign Wirtz.

The reporter told Sports Mole: “I think the biggest difference to Caicedo, to whom we’ve seen the concerns and comparisons, is in that situation, Liverpool were coming to the party late. They hadn’t done enough work on that deal.

“They sensed an opportunity and went in there at the last, but by that point the player had given his word to Chelsea and he didn’t want to go back on that. They were never in the driving seat for that one, even though they had a bid accepted, because they didn’t have the player on board.

(Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

“This is the complete opposite. They’ve got the player to sign off. They know what the personal terms will look like; all that aspects of the deal is sorted.

“It’s just about coming to an agreement now with Bayer Leverkusen, and there’s big optimism that that’ll get sorted imminently. I think the expectation is that it’ll be done before this initial [transfer] window closes [on 10 June].”

Liverpool appear to have learned from two years ago

Although it was with different personnel at the wheel that Liverpool failed to land Caicedo two years ago (Jorg Schmadtke was the Reds’ sporting director at the time, a job title that Richard Hughes now holds), they appeared to have learned lessons from that futile pursuit.

As Lynch pointed out, the current Anfield brains trust haven’t hung around in making their move for Wirtz, whose desire to come to Merseyside appears to be unshakable. Had they held fire until after the current international window, that could’ve given a rival suitor the opportunity to pounce.

Ultimately, the German has only had eyes for LFC, even turning down Bayern Munich in indicating his preference for the Premier League champions.

A club can throw all the money they want at a player, but if he’s not amenable to the move, then any sporting director would have their work cut out to try and convince him to come on board.

Thankfully, that hasn’t been the case with Wirtz, whose keenness to sign for Liverpool – allied with a far greater proactivity from the Anfield powerbrokers than in the failed pursuit of Caicedo – should help to hopefully get the impending transfer made official within the next few days.