Max Kruse Reportedly Rejected Liverpool Approach Earlier in Summer

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The former Werder Bremen striker chose life in the Turkish Super lig instead.

Very little is currently known about Liverpool’s summer transfer machinations. There have been rumors, often followed by quick denials, and then a whole heap of nothing (margin of error: plus or minus one Sepp van den Berg).

One of those rumors was 31-year-old out-of-contract striker Max Kruse from Bundesliga side Bremen Werder. Like most of the others, that rumor quickly faded, and he ended up signing with Turkish side Fenerbahce.

But apparently there was some truth to it. The source? No less than the player himself.

“During the transfer period, I’ve received lots of offers and one of them was Liverpool,” Kruse said in an interview with Bein Sports Turkey.

“But I decided to join Fenerbahce because I believe I will be very happy there.

“I spoke with a lot of players during that period and I am happy about my decision.”

Of course there are a lot of details missing here. Was it an actual offer, or just an interest? Was there a conversation about Kruse’s potential role in the team? And if so, was playing time an issue? Was this some Fenerbahce spin to make themselves look better? Who knows?

That Kruse ended up at a side that finished sixth in the Turkish Super Lig and is out of Europe altogether probably tells you everything you need to know about his potential place in Liverpool’s set up.

From the looks of it, it seems that Klopp and Michael Edwards et al. thought they could get some value from Kruse as a squad player, but the player himself had different ideas about his career.

Either way, he’s probably not the kind of player that would make the ultimate difference in whether Liverpool could finally get over that final hurdle, and take the league title back to Merseyside. But it is interesting to get a small idea about what has been going on behind the scenes this summer.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com