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Gotze: I made a wrong decision in not joining Liverpool


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The true beauty of Football is that it often has a number of ‘what if’ moments. 

 

What if Luis Garcia’s goal in the 2005 Champions League semi final was deemed to have not crossed the line, would the miracle of Istanbul have happened?

 

If Stevie hadn’t had not slipped in 2014, would the league title drought have ended a fair bit sooner than what it did?

 

Indeed, if Liverpool managed to hang on for that triumph, would there even be an Jurgen Klopp era, or would have Brendan Rodgers have had a distinguished tenure?

 

We as Football fans, often love to reminisce and think of these "what if" moments be they remembered fondly or with despair as it makes the game as wonderfully unique as it is.

 

The same thoughts would naturally come into a mind of a player,

 

An untimely injury cutting short a career, a transfer that happened and didn’t work out, or one that could have gone ahead but for whatever reason did not.

 

Mario Gotze certainly fits into that latter category.

 

The German international had lived the football dream by the age of 22, winning three league titles (two with Borussia Dortmund and one with Bayern Munich), a Champions League (with Bayern) and scoring the winning goal for your nation in the final of the World Cup.

 

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The great majority of footballers past and present would be delighted with a career such as that but instead of being able to build on that momentum and take his star to another level, in his prime years Gotze suffered from a metabolic disorder which was later found out to be myopathy,  a muscular disorder which affects the fibres in the muscles, meaning they do not function correctly.

 

It was a cruel setback, and at a time where he was weighing up career options after leaving Bayern for a fresh start, his first senior coach in Jurgen Klopp who he had a great deal of success with at Dortmund came knocking and asked whether he would be interested in joining his Reds revolution.

 

It is a discussion the versatile attacking player who is now 29 and playing his football with PSV reflected on per the Mail.

 

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"We spoke back then about me coming to Liverpool.

 

‘But I wasn’t in a state of mind where I could consider it, that’s why it didn’t happen.

 

‘Do I regret it? It’s always difficult to look back but if you ask me now then yeah, I should have joined Liverpool for sure. I just made a wrong decision but it’s not a regret.

 

Gotze reflected on his four seasons under his fellow German and like many have said before, he is someone who makes you a better player and person.

 

‘Klopp probably made the biggest impact on my career. He can be very demanding – he can be your friend but also very harsh at the same time. It pushes you to great performances. That’s what happened with me back then, and it’s happened with Liverpool now.

 

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‘He is a manager not just for the players but everyone at the club, and then one-on-one he can be a friend as well as a boss. Can I imagine working with him again? I can imagine that, yes – we’ll see.

 

‘He’s a good coach, for sure.

 

Gotze has had the honour of playing for the the two pre-eminent managers in Workd Football at this point of time in Klopp and Pep Guardiola.

 

And he gave an interesting insight into the personalities of both men.

 

"Klopp’s strength is speaking to players in a certain way, helping them.

 

But if you meet Pep off the field he’s a great guy. You can speak to him about family, private stuff, so he’s a great person.

 

'If you play in his team he is very demanding. That’s a good thing because he’s pushing you a lot but sometimes you need a different angle as a player.

 

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Back then, though, I was used to Klopp and this was my comparison. When I look now, I like what Pep does – being distant sometimes, keeping high-performing athletes together. Maybe I would do it the same way.

 

‘The title race in England this season is great to watch. It looked very different a few months ago but I believe in the end City will do it. That is my guess.’

 

 

 

 

 


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2 hours ago, Mil-ing Around said:

Does make you think how lucky have we been with transfers?

 

Goetza or Mane

Zielinski or Salah

Werner or Jota

 

Thank god the first names on that list turned us down

 

 


Jamal Lewis or Kostas Tsmiskas.

 

In hindsight, some of the hissy fits over Lewis & Werner were hilarious.

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From what I recall, we were trying to get Gotze because there was a body of opinion that suggested the player would thrive again under his old Dortmund coach. I can't remember if that was before or after Gotze's halth issues surfaced, but I have a feeling it was before. By the way, one inaccuracy in that article concerns Gotze winning the CL title. Gotze was still a Dortmund player that year Bayern won it. In a true shithouse move, Bayern announced that they'd agreed a deal for Gotze for that summer shortly before Dortmund played a CL semi final, minus an injured Gotze. The timing of the announcement came at a time when Dortmund were still challenging for the Bundesliga, and were a potential (and turned out to be the actual) CL final opponent.

 

I do recall Sadio being considered to be the alternative, and I honestly had my doubts. For one thing, we would yet again be throwing big money at Southampton. Secondly, Sadio had shown himself to be talented but inconsistent at Southampton. He could go for months without a goal or an assist, then score a 3-minute hat-trick. I thought he was a good player, but not for the money they were asking for. We'd already thrown daft money at Villa for Benteke the previous year, and it was only a few years earlier where we'd pissed a club record fee up the wall when signing Carroll.

 

The signing of Sadio is up there with the most important signings in the club's history though, because he was the first catalyst for what we would become. That huge fee now looks a bargain, and I'm not ashamed to admit I called that one wrong.

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4 hours ago, Mil-ing Around said:

Does make you think how lucky have we been with transfers?

 

Goetza or Mane

Zielinski or Salah

Werner or Jota

 

Thank god the first names on that list turned us down

 

 

Was Zielinski or Dahoud or Wijnaldum and Brandt or Salah, but yeah.

 

To be honest, with Klopp, it probably all would have worked out anyway, whoever we bought. 

 

Gotze could have been a huge disappointment though, given his health and fitness issues. He's decent still at PSV but he's not what he could have been. 

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34 minutes ago, Trumo said:

The signing of Sadio is up there with the most important signings in the club's history though, because he was the first catalyst for what we would become. That huge fee now looks a bargain, and I'm not ashamed to admit I called that one wrong.

You weren’t the only one. The Mané thread circa summer 2016 was about 90% cynical. 

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8 hours ago, Mil-ing Around said:

Does make you think how lucky have we been with transfers?

 

Goetza or Mane

Zielinski or Salah

Werner or Jota

 

Thank god the first names on that list turned us down

 

 

I think Werner would be better for us than he is for Chelsea but trading him for Jota would be absolutely mad given what he's contributed to us.

I'm also not sure Werner is as versatile. We're spoiled in that any of our 6 forwards can play anywhere in the front 3 if necessary, they all have their most effective positions but they can all do the job and of the 6 only one of them isn't at or close to the same level as the others.

As far as Gotze goes I don't think he'd have been very successful here but then again who knows, I did want him to sign for us at the time though.

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