Scouting Liverpool Transfer Target Loris Karius

After a mediocre 2015/16 campaign, Jurgen Klopp is set for a busy summer in the transfer market, adding to his squad for his first full season in charge of Liverpool, with Mainz goalkeeper Loris Karius reported to be among the German’s priority targets ahead of 2016/17.

According to the Liverpool Echo’s James Pearce, the Reds are “closing in on a £4.7million deal” for the 22-year-old, and though Pearce stresses that “no deal has yet been agreed,” he claims that, with Klopp a “big admirer” of Karius, they are “confident of securing [his] services.”

“Liverpool have had Karius watched extensively this season and Klopp believes the 6’3″ shot-stopper is the ideal recruit to provide greater competition for Anfield No. 1 Simon Mignolet,” Pearce continues, before suggesting that current backup options Adam Bogdan and Danny Ward would leave the club.

Bogdan is poised to depart on a permanent deal just one year after making the move from Bolton Wanderers, while Ward—an excellent young talent who impressed in his two Premier League appearances in 2015/16—would leave on loan, with Championship side Huddersfield Town his most likely destination.

Allowing two goalkeepers to leave in order to facilitate Karius’ arrival is a bold move by Klopp and one that underlines the 48-year-old’s faith in his young compatriot.

But who is Karius and what could he bring to Liverpool were he to make the £4.7 million move from Klopp’s former side?

If Karius does join Liverpool this summer, he would be no stranger to English shores, having spent two years in Manchester City’s academy as a teenager.

Arriving from Stuttgart as a precocious 16-year-old in a deal worth an “exorbitant amount of money,” as the German club’s youth coordinator Thomas Allbeck told Stuttgarter Nachrichten (h/t Sky Sports) in 2009, Karius became the latest face in a fervent youth drive from a newly rich City.

As Karius’ agent Klaus Gerster explained, the young goalkeeper was a much sought-after talent at the time of his move:

Loris signed a three-year contract in Manchester last week.

We had many offers from England and Germany—70 percent of Premier League sides wanted Loris.

Loris has great talent—if he didn’t, there wouldn’t have been such massive interest in him—but football is all about performances.

It may well have been that Liverpool were among that 70 percent of clubs chasing Karius’ signature, though making the switch to the English top flight so early was arguably not the best decision in terms of his development as a player.

Allbeck made a salient prediction on Karius’ move to Manchester, saying “all the sporting and educational aspects will not matter when a young player has got it made financially in just a few years time.”

Karius could have followed in the footsteps of a host of young players who have prioritised financial gain over personal development in the Premier League era, most notably with big clubs such as City, but the goalkeeper recognised the …

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