Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe to Liverpool transfer backed despite Champions League fear

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Liverpool can still sign Erling Braut Haaland or Kylian Mbappe this summer even if they don’t have Champions League football to offer, reckons Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand.

The Reds have suffered straight six defeats at Anfield in the Premier League to slide well down the English top-flight table, despite having been 68 unbeaten at home before losing to Burnley back in January.

Liverpool have gone from being top of the table in December to eighth and 25 points adrift of champions elect Manchester City, although the Citizens have played one match more than them after Wednesday’s defeat of Southampton.

Back-to-back home losses against Chelsea and Fulham last week have suddenly seen Liverpool’s hopes of a top-four finish written off with seven points separating the reigning champions and the fourth-placed Blues.

And that means the Merseyside outfit’s best hope of being in the Champions League, which they won in 2018-19, next season will be to win the competition this term. They reached the quarter-finals after being RB Leipzig 2-0 on Wednesday night through goals from Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane to win 4-0 on aggregate.

Missing out and dropping into the Europa League or even worse the brand new Europa Conference League would be a bitter blow to the ego of their squad and also a financial hit to the club.

Yet Ferdinand reckons such is the clout of manager Jurgen Klopp, who had led his team to 97 and 99-point league campaigns before their miserable return this time around, the likes of Haaland and Mbappe will still be keen on a move to Anfield even if they are out of the Champions League.

Borussia Dortmund frontman Haaland and Paris Saint-Germain forward Mbappe are perhaps the two most sought-after players in Europe with the duo expected to become the next generation’s Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

And Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Barcelona have all been linked with one or both of the pair, with Haaland in particular demand having scored 47 goals in 47 games for Dortmund since January 2020.

Despite the level of competition for the Norwegian and his French rival Mbappe, Ferdinand believes Liverpool can still sign either of the duo in the summer based solely on the lure of playing for Klopp.

Discussing Liverpool’s recent problems, Ferdinand declared: “His [Klopp] biggest challenge will be to pick these players up and rebuild them. It took them three or four years to build this confidence in them.

“They’ve been decimated by injuries but I think the biggest thing is the mental side. The mental side to rebuild now, after building such fear in opponents, to now them swaggering into Anfield.”

Host Gary Lineker then said: “And if they’re not in the Champions League, attracting the players that they need to get back in the Champions League becomes difficult.”

But Ferdinand responded: “I think given the last couple of years, two Champions League finals back-to-back, I think they’ll have grace in that area. People will still go there.”

Lineker added: “A Haaland or Mbappe?”

To which Ferdinand replied: “I think they could yeah. I think someone like Mbappe looks at the way Liverpool play and the manager.

“You look at the manager, the players of quality they’ve got. But the manager, is that a manager I want to play for? Klopp still is, yeah.”

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Speaking earlier this month, Klopp made it clear that he has no interest in signing players whose sole motivation is playing in the Champions League.

He said: “This club will not be regularly out of the Champions League. This year is difficult, we know that but the potential and the power of the club is a completely different one.

“The team we have together, the squad we have together if they are not all injured, is a different one.

“I don’t know exactly the [Liverpool] team 10 years ago or whatever, but we are ready for a battle in this era with the team we have together. So, again, a season has momentum and stuff like this and we never really got it this year, that’s true.

“But it says nothing about the future, this club is in a really good position. In difficult times, obviously, but in a better position than other clubs, I would say.

“I obviously did not think about it, what happened in the past. But what I can say is nobody has to worry about the future of the club because it’s in good hands and has a really good team together. That is obviously the best basis for a good future.

“If a player wants to leave us because we don’t play Champions League, I don’t want him. It’s not a personal thing, but it’s always like this.

“You always need to find the right squad for the challenges you face, and then you go for it. That’s how it is. It’s nothing I worry about.

“The owners want me to sort this situation, I want to sort the situation together with the players. That’s the plan.”

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