JURGEN Klopp has left the door open for Jordon Ibe and Brad Smith to return to Liverpool following summer moves to Cherries.
Advertisement
Ibe, 20, joined the the Cherries for £15 million last month before left-back Smith, 22, followed him to the South Coast a few weeks later in a £6m transfer.
With neither player likely to be first choice at Anfield this summer, Klopp made a decision to offload them but only on the guarantee the Reds could buy them back for a set price in future.
Both were unlikely to feature much in the first-team this season, with Klopp electing to off-load the pair rather than send them on loan.
While the two players have been deemed surplus by the new Reds manager Jurgen Klopp the German boss has refused to rule out a possible return.
“Yes, there’s a bit of a risk”. It’s not that you can sell someone for £10m with a buy-back clause of £8m. That would be fantastic!
“I like passing football and there are a lot of young players here so I thought it would be great for me to mix with new talent”.
“Of course you get a fee when you sell a player”.
“In both situations you think they are old enough and ready to play but in that moment they don’t have a fixed position in your team”.
Ibe and Smith were offloaded as Klopp looks to reshape his Liverpool side ahead of a season in which there will be less opportunities for fringe players due to the absence of European football.
He’s now stoked some tensions by suggesting there is little difference between playing for Liverpool or Bournemouth because both sides are competing for the same honours.
“If a player is on loan it’s different. You can always go home”, he added.
The former Dortmund manager insisted that the club will continue to monitor the youngsters’ progress at Bournemouth and would activate the option if there was a mutual agreement between the club and the players for them to move back to Anfield. And I would have more chances to play at Bournemouth than Liverpool so it doesn’t really matter’.
Jordon Ibe became Bournemouth’s club record signing when he joined from Liverpool.
Advertisement
Glenn is ESPN FC’s Liverpool correspondent.
