Speculation that Borussia Dortmund forward Mario Götze could be on his way to Anfield this summer has been rubbished by journalist Neil Jones.
Dortmund announced before their game against Wolfsburg that the World Cup winning attacker would leave the Westfalenstadion this summer on a free transfer.
The news of Götze's imminent departure has led to a flurry of speculation as to what his next move might be, with various suggestions emerging that he could seek to reunite with his former manager Jürgen Klopp in Liverpool.
Liverpool correspondent Jones, however, has claimed that Liverpool will not be following up the interest in Götze that they displayed in 2016.
He wrote for Goal: "At 27 – he will turn 28 on June 3 – Gotze should be entering his prime years. He should be interesting Europe’s elite clubs, Liverpool included, as a free transfer.
"He isn’t. Klopp will always have happy memories of him, Liverpool have long moved past Gotze. He won’t be moving to Anfield, now or any time in the future."
Jones also pointed towards more plausible reports which link the 27-year-old with a move to Italy, specifically to either AC Milan or Lazio.
Europe's biggest clubs, Jones suggests, are wary of signing, even for free, a forward who has struggled both tactically and with his fitness in recent years.
Götze initially drew comparisons to Messi as he burst onto the scene with Klopp's Dortmund, but he infuriated his manager by announcing his move to Bayern in advance of a Champions League semi-final tie for Die Borussen.
While Götze was succesful in his first two seasons under Pep Guardiola in Bavaria, during which period he scored the winning goal in the 2014 World Cup final, his struggle to stay in the first-team led to his departure to Dortmund.
Götze was also revealed in 2017 to have struggled with the metabolic disorder myopathy, which affects the muscle fibres and was considered a possible factor in the fitness issues that he has suffered throughout his career.
Source : 90min