Liverpool still interested in Carvalho as Klopp eyes future

London (AFP) – Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool’s strategy is always to build “a team for now and tomorrow”, revealing the club are still interested in Fulham teenager Fabio Carvalho after signing Porto forward Luis Diaz.

Liverpool signed Diaz, 25, for an initial fee of £37.5 million ($51 million) on Sunday but ran out of time to complete a deadline-day deal for Carvalho. 

Klopp said the club would be “crazy” not to retain an interest in the highly rated teenager, who is out of contract at the Championship leaders at end of the season.

“Our strategy is to sign the right players at the right moment,” the Liverpool boss said on Friday. “We recognise issues like a position or contracts.

“We are long together with this team, it’s a fantastic team, one of the most successful in the history of this club but we will never miss having a look ahead and that’s exactly what we are doing.

“We are Liverpool so we cannot only work with talents and say: ‘Let’s have a look in two or three years and they will be ready’. There must always be a mix-up.”

While Carvalho is viewed as a player for the future, his performances for Fulham — with seven goals and four assists in 18 league matches — have attracted attention from a host of clubs.

“We are obviously still interested,” said Klopp. “It would be crazy if we were not, but it is just at the moment not in our hands.

“It was late before the transfer window closed and it didn’t work out but we will see what happens.”

Colombia international Diaz has not yet trained with his new team-mates as he has been in Paris awaiting a visa.

Klopp urged patience with the winger as he prepared his team to play Championship side Cardiff in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday.

“If he would now come here onto the football pitch and immediately be at his absolute best and playing better than all the others that would be really strange because we’ve worked together for a while,” he said.

“It needs time, of course, that he adapts to it but that doesn’t mean I speak about four of five months.”

Klopp will have 18-year-old Harvey Elliott back in the squad this weekend for the first time since September after he recovered from ankle surgery.

“He is in a good place and is in full team training now, but we have to see what is right for him — is it right to start, is it right to come on?,” he said.

“But he will be in the squad definitely for the Cardiff game and from there we go. Most of the things look completely natural.”