Jeremie Frimpong has suggested he didn’t feel trusted by Pep Guardiola during his time at Manchester City, with a move to Liverpool now looking to be in the pipeline.
Links with the Bayer Leverkusen right-back are growing stronger and stronger, with one report in Germany claiming that Frimpong is “on the verge” of joining Liverpool. What’s more, the 24-year-old is said to have given the green light to a move to Merseyside, having apparently told his current club he wants to leave.
It seems then that Arne Slot and Richard Hughes are wasting no time in finding a replacement for Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is set to join Real Madrid soon. With the Premier League set to open a transfer window ahead of the Club World Cup, both deals could be just over a couple of weeks away from being completed.
As Liverpool.com reported a couple of months ago, the Reds’ interest in Frimpong has been held for a while – although it actually dates back to when he was just nine years old.
Liverpool missed out on the chance to sign Frimpong as a youngster, despite him choosing to join the Reds, with a move to City proving to be more convenient for him and his family at the time.
He would spend nine years with Liverpool’s rival, but failed to force his way into Guardiola’s first-team, and made the decision to leave the club for Celtic in 2019.
(Image: Mark Fletcher/NurPhoto via Getty Images.)
“I had been at City all my football life and I had the ability to play there,” he told The Scotsman five years ago, shortly after his move to Glasgow.
“But I knew in my head that it was about the coach, Pep Guardiola, trusting me to play. And I knew I wasn’t going to get that. So I needed to change something.
“When he bought another right-back this summer, Joao Cancelo, that topped it off because he is a young guy as well.
“You train with the first team every week and then you go back down with the under-23s. There wasn’t really a pathway for me at Man City.
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“So it wasn’t really that hard a decision. Obviously I would have loved to play for City, but I knew one day I would leave. This is just the beginning for me. Maybe I could go back there one day but right now I am staying here.”
As it turns out, Frimpong now looks set to become a direct rival for City, with reports suggesting he could be closing in on a move to Anfield.
It has been claimed that he will sign a five-year deal with Liverpool, with the Reds set to give Celtic a $7 million boost as part of the transfer.
