According to reports from Spain, one Real Madrid player who was linked with a summer move to Liverpool is now harbouring regrets over snubbing the Reds.
In July, it was claimed by some Spanish sources that the Merseysiders had tabled a big-money offer for Federico Valverde, although the midfielder’s preference was seemingly to stay put at the Bernabeu.
However, as per El Nacional (via Football365), the 25-year-old now ‘half regrets’ his decision to say ‘no’ to LFC – along with Manchester United and Chelsea – as he’s been left with ‘a feeling of being secondary’ under Carlo Ancelotti.
The report adds that the £134k-per-week Uruguayan (Capology) feels the ‘best thing he could have done is to have packed his bags’, having ‘already noticed’ that he won’t be an ‘undisputed starter’ for Los Blancos this term.
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Unlike Ryan Gravenberch – who made just three league starts in total for Bayern Munich before joining Liverpool last Friday (WhoScored) – Valverde hasn’t exactly been regularly overlooked by Ancelotti.
The 25-year-old has actually started three of Real Madrid’s four LaLiga games so far this term, with his 280 minutes of game-time more than the likes of Eduardo Camavinga, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Vinicius Junior (WhoScored).
Even if he only had 10 minutes off the bench in Saturday’s win over Getafe, he’d been ever-present in the three league matches before that (WhoScored), so it’d seems peculiar for him to complain about not feeling like an important player at the Bernabeu.
That said, we’d take these latest reports with a pinch of salt, considering how just a few weeks ago it was being claimed that Valverde sees himself as a future captain of Los Blancos and doesn’t want to uproot his young family from the Spanish capital (90min).
In any case, Liverpool addressed their need to revamp their midfield during the summer transfer window with four new arrivals, two of whom (Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai) have already made a big impression since linking up with Jurgen Klopp.
If it’s true that Valverde regrets turning down the chance to join the Reds, the ship may well have sailed for now until the time comes for that part of the squad to be considered once more.
#Ep89 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️
That’s good for him,let him play second fiddle to his colleagues. Liverpool wanted to make him a star.
Then let’s broker a deal now so he comes in January. Before Chelsea steal him too!