Jurgen Klopp explains 'we were lucky' quip after Liverpool's failed move for Moises Caicedo & confirms Jude Bellingham was his initial No.1 summer transfer target

Liverpool were pipped to the signing of Caicedo by Chelsea as the midfielder made his way to Stamford Bridge in a deal worth £115m ($146m). Klopp has since appeared to fire a dig at the Blues by saying his team were "lucky" to miss out on the midfielder, and he's now taken time out to clarify his comments while also admitting he was keen to bring in Bellingham before he signed for Real Madrid.

He told reporters: "We were interested in Bellingham and realised it would not happen. The whole market for No 6s went up. Two No 6s left our club. The market heated up. We thought we could maybe do Caicedo. We’d already done Mac Allister before. So we went in, he had an emotional agreement already with Chelsea and Pochettino. Then Lavia had his own reasons. So we were there.

“Then we found our top solution. That’s what I meant [when I said], ‘we are lucky’. We found Wataru. All the time in our mind we had Stefan [Bajcetic]. It was not clear at that moment he was so badly injured he could not feature at all. We already knew Macca could play the position. Dom was always on my radar. If one of the £100m [targets] had worked, there’s no chance to do another. So that door was open. That’s how it went. That’s what I meant when I said we are so lucky. Everything in the ‘if not’ scenario worked out.”

Liverpool went on to splash out on midfielders Alexis Mac Allister, Wataru Endo, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch instead and Klopp currently has his team top of the Premier League table. However, the Liverpool boss may still rue missing out on Bellingham, as the England international has starred for Real Madrid, scoring 14 goals in 18 La Liga games.

Klopp has announced he will leave Liverpool at the end of the season and will hope to add to his trophy collection before stepping down. The Premier League leaders return to action on Wednesday with a home game against Chelsea and Caicedo.