Liverpool news and transfers LIVE – Levi Colwill stance, Mason Mount hopes, Khephren Thuram race

Jurgen Klopp’s response was emphatic. It had to be.

After one of the most anticipated press conferences of the German’s eight-year stay on Merseyside, Liverpool’s ended pursuit of England and Borussia Dortmund sensation Jude Bellingham was finally confirmed straight from the horse’s mouth.

In place at the AXA Training Centre, Klopp swiftly confirmed the Reds’ cooled interest in the midfielder, reaching for an analogy of a ‘five-year-old’ and a ‘Ferrari’.

Klopp said: “We cannot have six players (and) everyone is for £100 million. That’s kind of clear. You have to realise what you can do and then have to work with that. How much money we have available and then you have to work with that

“We are not children asking a five-year-old what they want for Christmas and they tell you: ‘I want a Ferrari’. You wouldn’t say that’s a good idea, you’d say it’s too expensive and anyway you cannot drive it. If this kid spent his whole life because he cannot get a Ferrari then it would be a sad life.

“It’s just what you can do and then you do it and work with that. Nothing else to say. That’s always how I work. What we need and what we want, we’ll try absolutely everything to get it but there are moments that you have to accept these are not possible for us, step aside and do different stuff.”

As a result, heading into the off-season, Liverpool – uncertain of which European competition, if any, they’ll be competing in next season – are tasked with drawing up plans for one of the most significant rebuilds in the club’s 131-year history.

The forthcoming departures of Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who are both out of contract at the end of the current season, as well as questions around Fabinho and Jordan Henderson’s form, suggests there will be plenty of movement in the Reds’ engine room during summer months.

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