Before apologizing to Sadio Mane during Liverpool transfer negotiations, Jurgen Klopp wanted to punch himself.

Sadio Mane has left Liverpool for Bayern Munich after the sides agreed a €41m deal in the summer

Sadio Mane looks set to leave Bayern Munich this summer, but there is no suggestion the Senegalese will complete a return to Liverpool.

After winning all there was to win at Anfield, the 31-year-old ended his Reds career last year for a £35m transfer to Bavaria. But while he would win the Bundesliga title in his first season in Germany, his first season ultimately proved disappointing.

The striker played 38 games for Bayern last season and scored 12 goals. However, he only made 25 Bundesliga appearances and 27 appearances in all competitions as, without the help of injury, he has failed to find the best form of him.

A dressing room altercation with team-mate Leroy Sane led to the striker being suspended for one game in April, with the suggestion that Bayern would try to keep him there.

Bayern’s £60million bid for Harry Kane, which was reportedly seen as overshot by new manager Thomas Tuchel, suggests the Bundesliga giants are planning a future without Mane, despite having been rejected.

He has been loosely linked with a return to the Premier League as well as a move to Saudi Arabia, but his future remains uncertain at the moment.

Kopites said he had a heavy heart at the striker last summer after scoring 120 goals in his six seasons on Merseyside, propelling Liverpool to the Champions League for only the second time since 2009 before helping them lift six trophies and to be crowned champions of England and Europe. and the world.

Certainly, despite being 30 and with a year left on his contract, it was only a matter of time before the Reds had to consider a future without the striker. At least his faltering successes in Germany can comfort Liverpool bosses with the fact that they appreciated the best of Mane before selling him for a profit.

With Roberto Firmino already in the squad, the Senegal international was the second part of the Reds’ attacking game when he was signed from Southampton in the summer of 2016.

Along with Mohamed Salah the following year, Jurgen Klopp was the best front line of Europe which has conquered everything before them.

Mane was actually Klopp’s first major signing at Anfield as he tried to turn doubters into believers.

He was signed at the start of the German’s first full season at the club. And his desire to sign the Senegalese from Saints to bolster his attack stems from a previous transfer mistake which saw the Liverpool manager admitting he could have struggled.

Klopp has been following Mane’s progress since his impressive display at the 2012 London Olympics and first thought about signing Mane when he was Borussia Dortmund manager, while also holding talks with the then RB Salzburg player about a possible transfer at the Westfalenstadion in 2014. decided the player was not for him before quickly realizing he’d made a terrible mistake.

“I made a mistake,” Klopp said. “We met, we talked, but in the end I didn’t hear from him anymore. I like the player, it was more of a sensation. “His baseball cap was askew, the blonde highlights he still has today.

He looked like a rookie rapper. I thought, ‘I don’t have time for this.’ I would say I have a pretty good sense of people, but was I wrong?

“At Dortmund we could only have one player for this position, not two or three, so it had to be perfect at that time. About three months later I would have fought, so I already knew that I would take the next chance I got. “With Sadio it was a pretty easy decision.

When the club arrived in the summer and Michael Edwards said we had a chance, no more talks were needed. It was ‘Let’s do it.

“Since I arrived here I have spoken a lot about him to the staff and I always thought he could be a very good signing for us. He would have been more expensive if we had brought him to Dortmund and then sold him. at Liverpool, so all is well for Liverpool. The more I think about it, that was my first decision for Liverpool. Cute!”

Dortmund’s defeat was Liverpool’s victory, as Klopp made sure to get his man out of him in 2016 and even stole it from under Manchester United’s noses. And the German would have apologized to the attacker in a secret phone call while he tried to convince him to join him at Anfield.

“I have to say I was very close to leaving for Manchester United,” Mane admitted in an interview with The Telegraph when he reflected on his decision to join Liverpool. “I had the contract there. I agreed. Everything was ready.

“I still remember the first time I got the call from Klopp. I watched TV. It was an action movie – because I love movies – and he said: ” Sadio, listen, I want to explain to you what happened in Dortmund.”

“At the time he was thinking of signing me for Dortmund, but for some reason it didn’t work out. He tried to explain himself and I said, “It’s okay, it happened. I forgave him. Then he said, “Now I want you at Liverpool.” And I said: “Okay, Dortmund is behind us, let’s focus on the future.”

Eight years after his failed move to Dortmund, Mane was a late earner of a Bundesliga transfer, but only after enjoying his prime at Liverpool under Klopp.

And while the German would inevitably have preferred the striker to stay at Anfield, he was at least able to rectify the decision that led him to struggle all those years ago.

But while Mane is looking to rediscover his best Reds form elsewhere, should he indeed leave Monaco this summer, he will not be allowed a return to the Reds.

As much as Klopp wanted to slap himself for not signing the striker the first time around, such an itch has rightly been scratched by six trophy-laden years at Merseyside.

And even though the 31-year-old returned to the Premier League and ended up chasing his former club, the German cannot be expected to kick himself in the head for not moving.

After all, the signings of Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo ensure that he has already been duly replaced at Anfield.