Wrexham chief names surprise Liverpool star as dream signing ‘if money was no object’

Wrexham executive director Humphrey Ker has revealed he has a “real soft spot” for a surprise Liverpool star and would sign him “if money was no object”.

The Football League side will be playing in League One next season after earning promotion by finishing second in League Two.

The Welsh side – who are owned by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney – are ambitious and they have already refused to rule out signing Jamie Vardy following the expiry of his contract at Leicester City.

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Ker has now revealed that he would love to sign Liverpool centre-midfielder Wataru Endo.

The Japan international joined Liverpool as part of their midfield overhaul during last year’s summer transfer window. Over £200m was invested to sign Alexis Mac Allister, Dominic Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Endo.

Endo was a low-cost signing as he joined Liverpool for around £16m after they missed out on Chelsea pair Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia.

Liverpool were mocked at the time for signing Endo but he has grown into this season and has arguably performed better than Caicedo has for Chelsea, while Lavia has missed most of this campaign through injury.

Endo is one of Ker’s “favourite players” and there is a “good lesson” to be learned from Liverpool signing the 31-year-old.

“In terms of who’s one of my favourite players and who would I love to see playing in a Wrexham shirt? At present, I’ve got a real soft spot for Wataru Endo,” Ker told SportBible.

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“Who is kind of a perfect encapsulation of the fury in the summer when Liverpool missed out on Caicedo and Lavia and it was all doom and gloom and disaster.

“And then they sign Wataru Endo and it was like ‘well, who’s this guy? I’ve never heard of him’ he was only 16 million quid, what are they playing at? And then he’s been one of the signings of the season.

“I think there’s a good lesson there for all of us in terms of, you know, the glitz and the glamour and the big price tags and ‘what are Liverpool doing not spending 100 million on a central midfielder’.

“It’s like, you don’t need to spend 100 million, you need to spend your money wisely, you’ve got to find and identify the best players. I don’t know Wataru Endo from Adam but you can see he’s got fantastic character. He’s got a fantastic work ethic, you see in the interactions, the pictures and the other players, they clearly all really like him and he’s done an unbelievable job there.

“So yeah, if money is no object and the player does not particularly mind about moving to North Wales. I’m a big fan of his.”

Earlier this season, Jurgen Klopp revealed he had received “plenty of messages from former players” congratulating him on signing Endo.

“I got plenty of messages from former players of mine,” Klopp told reporters. “Everybody (said), ‘If it’s true, this is a genius strike. I asked to sign him for years’. It was a very positive thing in Germany – he’s super-highly respected.

‌“I think for Stuttgart it’s really hard to lose him but on the other side I think it’s a good deal as well, one year left [on his] contract. For him, it’s good. For the club, it’s good. For us, it’s really good. He is really happy to join us, which is nice as well.”

More: Liverpool | Wataru Endo | Jurgen Klopp