Jurgen Klopp confirms Liverpool agreement over Moises Caicedo deal

News broke early on Friday morning that the Reds had seen a British-record offer of a reported £110m accepted for the midfielder.

The development was the latest twist in a long-running saga that had seen Chelsea considered front-runners for Caicedo's signature for much of the summer, while Liverpool focused their attention on Romeo Lavia.

Reports have suggested that Caicedo could undergo a medical at Liverpool as early as today, but Klopp stopped short of revealing whether or not the player had agreed to the move yet.

"The fee with the club is agreed. We will see what that means. We aren't a club with endless resources and we didn't expect a couple of things to happen this summer. Then it happened," Klopp told reporters at his pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday's season opener against Chelsea.

On the possibility of a medical happening on Friday, Klopp added: "I cannot say. I don't know."

The deal would contradict Klopp's insistence from 2016 that he would never spend £100m on a player, but the Liverpool boss acknowledged that the market had changed significantly since those comments.

"Everything changed. Do I like it? No. Did I realise I was wrong? Yes. That's the way it goes. Saudi Arabia will not help with that," he added.

"In the end, we have to try and make sure we get the best possible team together. 50% will like it and 50% won't. We are trying to bring together the best squad for us. We cannot just point on players and bring them in, there is a lot of work to do.

"Sometimes one door closes and another opens up. If people want to throw my quotes from five years ago, no problem. I realise I was wrong."

The arrival of Caicedo would complete a major midfield overhaul for Liverpool this summer, having sold or released Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, James Milner, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Fabio Carvalho, and brought in Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.

The Merseyside outfit endured a disappointing 2022-23 campaign which saw them finish fifth and miss out on Champions League football, but Klopp is confident that the new season will see "Liverpool FC reloaded" as they bid to establish themselves as title contenders once again.

"I enjoyed [pre-season] a lot. The boys were open, listening and eyes and ears open. We did a lot not only on the pitch but meetings as well. We really wanted to learn our game. It must be different, we want to go to next level in our game together," he told reporters.

"There were moments in the games [last season] where we were more open and not protected. It is an organisation thing, not down to individual talent.

"We have a new start with Liverpool FC reloaded if you like. Everyone was asking for changes, rightly so. The timing for a change is a biggest one in life. Now it happened and that's good. Everyone has to step up.

"The new leadership group has to step up. The players who aren't in it, they have what it takes to be in there. Cody [Gakpo], Dom (Szoboszlai) captain of his national team at 22, Macca (Mac Allister) as well. Let's take responsibility. Don't try to be like someone - try to be the best version of yourself.

"They show desire, concentration, the readiness, the openness. I saw a lot of things where my thought was, 'Okay, they mean business'. You could see it. We want to show up. We want to be in Champions League next year."

Liverpool open their campaign against another team that suffered a hugely underwhelming season last term in Chelsea, but Klopp insists that his side must be wary of the new-look Blues under Mauricio Pochettino.

"We prepared the Chelsea game for a while. There is no distraction. I think it is two talented football teams, we watched Chelsea on their tour and there were a lot of good things. That's what we have to prepare for. It's their first game and they will want to show up," he said.

"They have really good options offensively. It's the first competitive game for us and we really want to go for it, but have to see how it goes. I think we should give it a proper try."

Klopp was also asked about the new initiative for adding extra time on to games in an attempt to increase the time the ball is in play and cut down on the effect of time-wasting, meaning matches will now regularly last for more than 100 minutes.

"It's difficult to answer. We have a 90-minute game. If we get to 55, 60 minutes with the ball in play, we will see. It doesn't sound too difficult. We have too many competitions, too many games and having three or four minutes with the ball in play, I can't see it making a massive difference," Klopp said.

"I think time-wasting and rhythm-breaking has become a massive issue in recent years. I thought it would make sense to give earlier cards for time-wasting. But I hope we end up with a good solution - not 10-15 mins extra time and also loads of yellow cards."

After opening their campaign away to Chelsea, Liverpool take on Bournemouth, Newcastle United and Aston Villa in their next three games.