Forgotten Liverpool ace who was Jurgen Klopp's first buy is now plotting England's demise
Former Liverpool ace Marko Grujic was the first signing of the Jurgen Klopp era, but failed to live up to expectations. Now, he's plotting to torment England at Euro 2024 this summer
It took Jurgen Klopp a good few years to get Liverpool properly firing, which is little surprise judging by his first few signings.
The German boss has spent just shy of £900million of 45 players since moving to Anfield in 2015, but had a fairly cost-effective first season at the helm. While the likes of Sadio Mane, Joel Matip and Georginio Wijnaldum would join at the end of the campaign, the first name through the door was Marko Grujic, who arrived for £5m in January 2016.
The midfielder was a highly-rated youngster making waves in his native Serbia at the time, and the likes of Chelsea, Juventus and Inter Milan were tracking him before Liverpool managed to snap him up. But Grujic, now 27, failed to make the grade on Merseyside and left after playing just 16 times for the club.
READ MORE: Ex-Liverpool star's texts to old boss about team-mates told story of Jurgen Klopp reign
READ MORE: Forgotten Liverpool and Man City star now has a football academy out in Siberia
These days, he's plying his trade for Porto and is a regular in Serbia's national team. As such, he'll be standing between England and Euro 2024 glory in a few months' time.
The Three Lions, who are one of the favourites to win the tournament, have been drawn in a group against Serbia, Denmark and Slovenia. They'll face Serbia in their opening match on June 16 in Gelsenkirchen before battling it out with Denmark and Slovenia on June 20 and June 25 respectively.
Do Serbia stand a chance against England at the Euros? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Grujic was arguably the most high profile signing of Klopp's first transfer window, though his arrival was somewhat overshadowed by the bizarre capture of defender Steven Caulker, who joined on loan from QPR.
With the likes of Wijnaldum, Jordan Henderson, Philippe Coutinho and Emre Can ahead of him in midfield, Grucij struggled for minutes and eventually left on loan, spending the 2017/18 season on loan at Cardiff City. He then spent two years at Hertha Berlin before leaving permanently in 2020 to join Porto.
Klopp was a central figure in luring Grujic to Anfield and even flew to Belgrade to convince the youngster to pick Liverpool over other options available to him at the time.