Wataru Endo acknowledges that he was taken aback when he unexpectedly moved from Stuttgart to Liverpool in August, but he maintains that he doesn’t give a damn about the criticism of the transfer.
Following their failure to get Moises Caicedo from Brighton & Hove Albion in what would have been a British record £111 million move during the summer transfer window, Liverpool fell to Chelsea again when they signed Romeo Lavia from Southampton in a deal estimated to be worth approximately £50 million.
Jurgen Klopp and sports director Jorg Schmadtke missed out on the two defensive midfielders and instead focused on signing Endo from Stuttgart. The Japan captain made the move for approximately £16 million, just a few days before Bournemouth visited the team on August 12After Liverpool lost out to Chelsea for two younger Premier League players in Caicedo and Lavia, there was a great degree of surprise and even outrage at the quickness of the deal and the player’s profile at the time. When Endo finally signed from the Bundesliga side in 2016, he became the first player signed in his 30s since Ragnar Klavan in 2016.
Despite this, Endo says he is not worried by people who doubted the transfer too much after he scored his first goal for the Reds in Thursday’s 5-1 Europa League thrashing of Toulouse.
“I understand they say that stuff because I’m 30 years old and I know Liverpool wanted to sign younger players,” Endo stated. But that is typical. I was indifferent to what they said..
With Thursday’s 5-1 triumph, Liverpool increased their goal total to 33 in just 13 games. Of those goals, 25 were shared by Klopp’s starting five, who included Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota, Cody Gakpo, and Luis Diaz.
“That’s normal for Liverpool!” Endo pushed. “We have excellent strikers, and whether they start or not, every player gives it their all in every game. Mo scored today from the bench, which is a crucial development. Not only does the starting lineup always have players available, but everyone is eager to participate.”
