- Title: Klopp refuses to comment on Keita frustrations
- Date: 19th July 2017
- Summary: HONG KONG, CHINA (JULY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS JUERGEN KLOPP SPEAKING AS SEEN FILMED WITH PHONE (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER JUERGEN KLOPP, BEING ASKED ON REPORTS SUGGESTING LEIPZIG REJECTED ANOTHER BID FROM LIVERPOOL FOR NABY KEITA, SAYING: "What do you know? 66 million turned down today?" (Reporter: "These are reports coming out of England, yeah." "Oh my God! Which newspaper?" (Reporter: "How much higher are you gonna go?") "Are win Vegas or what? I told you I don't speak about this, oh here's not Vegas, what is the other side of the island in Asia? Macau. Are we in Macau?!" NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER JURGEN KLOPP, SAYING: "So a lot, it rained a lot. But we were on our training pitch. So it was good. The boys really enjoyed it because it was not football. It was a kind of mix between waterball and football. And it was really intense for them in the afternoon we were on a running track, and of course the thunder and the lightning storms disturbs a little bit, and this morning we were on the pitch again. And you can imagine the grass was meanwhile, high, because they couldn't cut it because of the rain. So we did it again and we played football in the best circumstances we had so far. So it's good. Football is an outdoor sport and as long as it's not dangerous for the players I am fine. But it all stays difficult for us." CRYSTAL PALACE MANAGER FRANK DE BOER AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CRYSTAL PALACE MANAGER, FRANK DE BOER, SAYING: "This was our first real game, we played internal games of course. But this was really under quite hard circumstances and we played under a new system. I think only Ruben Loftus-Cheek played this system at Chelsea, so we have to learn, we have to adapt to the system, we're not even three weeks on the way so I think from my point of view it was a good performance." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS
- Embargoed: 2nd August 2017 18:29
- Keywords: Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp Crystal Palace manager Frank De Boer
- Location: HONG KONG, CHINA
- City: HONG KONG, CHINA
- Country: China
- Topics: Soccer,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA0016QDV2NZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Juergen Klopp sidestepped questions about his club's continued frustrations in their attempts to sign Naby Keita from RB Leipzig, after Liverpool handed Crystal Palace a 2-0 defeat in the Premier League Asia Trophy on Wednesday evening (July 19).
Liverpool are believed to have had a 66 million pound bid for the Guinea international midfielder turned down by the German side, but Klopp refused to be drawn on reports that his pursuit of Keita is being blocked.
Leipzig owner Dietrich Mateschitz was quoted in the German media claiming his club had refused the bid for the 22-year-old and that Keita is not for sale after impressing for the Bundesliga runners-up last season.
Klopp was able to run the rule over his new signings against Palace, with Dominic Solanke scoring his side's first for the club since joining from Chelsea in a deal worth 3 million pounds.
Divock Origi scored Liverpool's second as Klopp's team set up a meeting with Leicester City in the final of the pre-season tournament on Saturday while another new signing, Mohamed Salah, impressed with his pace and direct running. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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