Liverpool Transfer News: Jurgen Klopp Talks Jack Butland, Steven Gerrard Rumours

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has dismissed speculation linking the Reds with a new goalkeeper, emphatically backing his current first choice, Simon Mignolet.  

Rumours have swirled in recent weeks over the possibility of Liverpool looking for a new man between the sticks, with Stoke City’s Jack Butland said to be a target. But as he addressed the media on Tuesday, Klopp suggested Mignolet is his man for now, per Jack Lang of the Daily Mirror:

"

I’m absolutely satisfied with our goalkeeper situation. I’m sorry to kill your stories... German goalkeepers, one from Stoke.

We have quality goalkeepers. Simon Mignolet is one of the smartest I’ve ever had. He’s open, completely open. He’s young enough to improve and since I’m here there’s nothing to criticise.

"

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Mignolet is a goalkeeper that has divided Liverpool supporters for a long time. The Belgium international is capable of producing some magnificent moments between the sticks, which have gotten the Reds out of trouble at times this season. Although his game is strewn with some rudimentary errors and lapses in concentration.

A faux pas against Bordeaux in the Europa League earlier in the campaign, when Mignolet hung on to the ball for 20 seconds and conceded an indirect free-kick, cost the Reds a goal. Here’s a reminder of that calamitous incident, per Boylesports:

As reported by Chris Beesley of the Liverpool Echo, Liverpool and local rivals Everton had been linked with Butland recently, with a sum of £20 million suggested. However, Potters manager Mark Hughes has ended speculation suggesting the England international could be sold, insisting “Jack's going nowhere.”

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BT Sport commentator Ian Darke has been very impressed with Butland’s displays this term, rating him as one of the best players in the division:

For Liverpool, landing the goalkeeper would be a coup but a pretty expensive exercise. Stoke are under no pressure to sell Butland, who would command an extortionate fee as a bright, young English player. However, even if the Reds were to spend upward of the £20 million mentioned, he’d be a long-term solution to the current concerns in goal.

Klopp Discusses Steven Gerrard

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The Liverpool manager has also insisted that the door will always be open for Steven Gerrard to come back and train with the Reds, but he denied there is any chance of him making a playing return.

“Steven Gerrard won’t play!” stated Klopp ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Southampton in the quarter-final of the League Cup, per Lang. “He’s in good shape. I said to team this is normal—doors always have to be open for Stevie. It’s a good situation, everybody had a smile when they saw Stevie, it’s good to have him here and we hope we can help him.”

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Gerrard’s current employers, the Los Angeles Galaxy, have finished their season, and the former Reds captain has swapped the American sun for the moribund Merseyside conditions this week. As such, he’s been joining Klopp and his former team-mates on the training pitch at Melwood.

The club’s Twitter feed posted the following image of the pair braving the wind and the rain in Liverpool:

Gerrard will be an asset to Klopp for what little time he can spend with the club. There are few players who know more about what it means to represent the Reds, and with no local players regularly representing the first team, it’ll be important for the German to get the opinions of the former Scouse skipper on a plethora of issues.

A playing return would definitely be one for the football romantics, but it’s worth remembering Gerrard was a faded force in his final season with the Reds. After half of a season away from the club featuring in Major League Soccer, you wonder just how much of an impact he’d be capable of having should he return to the unforgiving landscape of the Premier League.