One Liverpool player has been told that they may have chosen the wrong move for their career by joining the Reds.
Ryan Gravenberch will go down as the club’s last signing under Jurgen Klopp, having completed a €40m (£34m) switch from Bayern Munich on deadline day of the summer 2023 transfer window.
The 21-year-old is at least getting more game-time than what he was afforded in Germany, although he’s had to be content with just 10 Premier League starts so far, with only one of those coming since the end of February (Transfermarkt).
As highlighted in a recent piece by Voetbal4U, Dutch legend Wim Kieft suggested that the £150,000-per-week midfielder’s camp ought to be giving him better transfer advice, fearing that his potential will go unfulfilled if he continues to be a bit-part player at elite clubs.
The pundit – who won the European Championship with Netherlands in 1988 – said of Gravenberch: “Such players are deemed worth the investment, even if they don’t succeed. After a difficult season at Bayern Munich, Liverpool simply paid €40m for Gravenberch. If it works, then great. If it doesn’t work, they will sell him for an acceptable amount.
“Gravenberch’s advisors must recognise that this is how it works and ask him whether it is in the player’s interest to take on this challenge in Munich and then Liverpool. If you can’t break through at Bayern Munich, why would you succeed if you move to Liverpool?”
Sometimes footballers can be guilty of pushing for an ill-advised move to a big-name club, even if their career would be best served by enjoying regular game-time in a more ‘modest’ team.
However, when the likes of Bayern Munich and then Liverpool come calling, it can be difficult to turn down those illustrious opportunities, particularly with the fear that it might be the player’s only chance to represent such European royalty.
Although Gravenberch hasn’t yet hit the heights that some might’ve hoped at Anfield, he’s already had nearly double the number of minutes that he was granted in Bavaria (Transfermarkt), so he won’t have any regrets about getting out of the Allianz Arena.
Some of his performances have had their flaws (the bollocking he received from Jurgen Klopp for not tracking back during the 3-1 defeat to Arsenal springs to mind), but he’s still only 21 and is adapting to yet another new club, league and country.
The goal for the young midfielder is to disprove doubters such as Kieft and show that he unquestionably belongs at a club of Liverpool’s statue. So long as he learns from the experiences of his first season in England, he has the talent to prove that the Reds made the right decision to land him from Bayern.
More must-reads: