Klopp Says No on Ojo Loan Deal

The beginnings of pre-season often see a mish-mash of second-stringers and youth players take the pitch, as the manager looks to fill the squad with as many able bodies as possible, and the majority of first-team players often spend the summer away with their national teams for tournaments. Despite lip service to the contrary, there is very rarely any chance a youth player will make such an impression that they will force their way into the manager's plans for the forthcoming season if they weren't already; they are simply too well monitored for surprises like that to be likely.

This summer, with no Copa, no Euros and no World Cup, the majority of Liverpool's senior players will be available from early on in pre-season — Emre Can's travels with Germany for the Confederations Cup notwithstanding. Thus, there is less probability of a flock of youngsters seeing significant minutes in the summer's warm-up fixtures than has been the case in recent summers.

Nonetheless — according to the Liverpool Echo — Jürgen Klopp insists that he doesn't want to release any young players on loan until after having had a look at them in pre-season. This means that Brighton and Newcastle, who have inquired about the availability of Joe Gomez and Sheyi Ojo, respectively, will have to wait patiently until the gaffer has satisfied his curiosity about the current abilities of his youngsters.

Naturally, loaning sides would prefer to get their deals done early, allowing their temporary players to participate in their own pre-season in order to settle into the team, and a postponement of a deal until closer to the first competitive fixture increase the likelihood that interested clubs will look elsewhere for short-term talent acquisition. Hopefully, the young players deemed unprepared for the rigours of Liverpool first-team football will be found appropriate homes before the beginning of the season.