Jorg Schmadtke admit he ‘misjudged’ Liverpool’s signing of Dominik Szoboszlai.
Schmadtke left his role as the Anfield club’s sporting director earlier this month following a brief spell as Julian Ward’s successor in the key recruitment role.
The German, who arrived highly regarded by Jurgen Klopp, was responsible for the Reds spending over £145 million on four players during the summer transfer window.
But Schmadtke has revealed that he harboured reservations about the £60m price tag on Szoboszlai, who became Liverpool’s fourth most expensive player of all-time.
In an interview with Die Zeit in his homeland, the former goalkeeper also detailed his working relationship with Klopp and spoke glowingly of the outgoing Liverpool boss.
“He has special abilities,” said Schmadtke.
“When he enters a room with four tired people sitting at the table, he recharges them. After a few minutes they are fit again and full of energy. It’s quite amazing.
“He is an exception when it comes to signing new players. If a transfer is not possible, then he accepts it – and falls in love with another player.
“I really appreciated that, there aren’t many coaches who can do that. This gift made our collaboration easier.
“Unlike the clubs in Germany, in Liverpool I was responsible for the transfers, but I mainly worked with Jurgen. I stopped everyone from knocking on his door.
“I no longer wanted to be part of the change process that began with the new coach.
“It was only fair for me to vacate my chair in time. You have to make mistakes in order to get better. I could certainly have saved myself some public statements.
“[Some transfers cost] eight figures. Now in Liverpool there was someone who cost 70million (euros), Dominik Szoboszlai, who we brought from Leipzig.
“Then I said: ‘It’s too expensive’. From today’s perspective, that was a misjudgment on my part. The boy was an important Liverpool player from day one.
“He performed better than I would have expected him to.”