(Video) Journalist explains why Liverpool backed away from 18y/o they would’ve ‘loved to bring in’

One recurring theme during Liverpool’s summer transfer window is that of teenage defenders they’d have liked to sign but ultimately didn’t.

The Reds had shown a genuine interest in Leny Yoro but were unwilling to match the £58.8m that Manchester United offered to Lille for the French youngster, who’s since moved to Old Trafford.

Speaking to Forest Fan TV, Ben Jacobs named another 18-year-old centre-back who had won admiration among Anfield recruiters, but it seemed that the feeling wasn’t reciprocal.

The journalist said: “Liverpool do want a centre-back in that position [left-sided] and it will be a surprise if the window shuts and they don’t get one. They would have loved to bring in Jorrel Hato from Ajax very early in the window and Arsenal were looking at him, too.

“Liverpool never advanced that, so it was one of those links that never materialised because they felt like the player would stay at Ajax. Then Arsenal were more serious and again they felt exactly the same thing.”

Hato is a few months younger than Yoro but has accrued a similar amount of senior experience (61 first-team games for Ajax), and his club value him so highly that they reportedly put an £86m price tag on him earlier this year.

That’s a scandalously huge figure for someone who, for all his promise, still has much to prove at a high level; and if Liverpool felt that they’d be unable to persuade the Dutch youngster to leave Amsterdam, they were probably right not to pursue what was looking increasingly like a dead end.

Let’s just hope we can get in a left-footed ceentre-back before the transfer window shuts, though!

You can view Jacob’s comments on Hato below (from 7:12), via Forest Fan TV on YouTube:

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