Every summer it seems that one player dominates the transfer rumour mill at Liverpool.
To be fair, that probably applies to every other club, but in the case of the Reds last summer saw one striker in particular linked with a move to Anfield.
For months, it seemed like Timo Werner looked destined to leave RB Leipzig to link up with Jurgen Klopp.
The striker even had interviews where he acknowledged how much he admired Klopp and Liverpool. It just seemed like it was meant to be.
However, Chelsea had other ideas in mind and came in at the eleventh hour to sign the German.
It wasn’t exactly stealing a march on Liverpool, as they shifted their sights to Diogo Jota instead and that has worked out pretty well so far.
Werner was meant to be a bargain buy in today’s market. Yes, £50m is a lot of money in any walk of life, but for a striker who was scoring 30-plus goals a season and could only get better it certainly looked an easy deal from the outside.
Yet you would find it difficult to find anyone at Chelsea who would say that Werner’s time at Stamford Bridge has been a major success.
They may be in the semi-final of the Champions League, but has he really played a significant role in getting the team there?
So far the numbers read 11 goals in 45 appearances in all competitions, with just six of those coming in the Premier League.
It’s not an awful return, especially for a player in their first season, but Chelsea would be lying if they said they didn’t expect more from their new striker.
In fairness to Werner, he has not had an easy time of it at Chelsea. Many will point to the missed chances, but you only have to look at his record at Leipzig to know that he’s a goalscorer who’s just lacking confidence at the moment.
He arrived under the management of Frank Lampard, who was blessed with more than £200m worth of new attacking talent all at once it wasn’t clear how it would work.
Then Werner was moved out of position on many occasions, which is not ideal for a player out of form looking for goals.
To make it more difficult, the Germany international has also had to deal with a changing of manager who has a different style and philosophy.
It’s Werner’s first season, and he will be hoping that his second is an improvement, that’s for sure. But could there be part of him wondering ‘what could have been?’
Only those close to the clubs and the player will know how much interest Liverpool had in Werner, and at what stage they withdrew their name from the race.
Even so, it’s fair to say that Anfield may well have been a more suitable home for the 25-year-old than Stamford Bridge.
Working with Klopp, a fellow German who understands the Bundesliga like the back of his hand, would have been an advantage to the striker.
No one will know how things would have worked out had Werner made the move to Anfield, we can only speculate.
There would have been no Jota, that’s for sure, so that is a big loss in itself.
Given Roberto Firmino has not been at his best this season, would Klopp have decided to give Werner more game time over the Brazilian?
Would Werner have proved to be the difference in the losses that have seen Liverpool’s season meander along into a stream of mediocrity? Again, it’s just pure speculation.
It’s doubtful that Werner will regret moving to Chelsea instead of Liverpool, but there may well be part of him that will wonder what could have been had he made the switch to Merseyside.
