Jurgen Klopp will regret allowing Arsenal to sign £72million ace unchallenged

Liverpool were in the race to sign Nicolas Pepe and while his first season in the Premier League didn't go to plan, he's coming good at a very turbulent Arsenal.

The summer of 2019 saw Liverpool linked with exciting players like Nicolas Pepe, Matthijs De Ligt and Nabil Fekir for the second time and the Reds ended up signing Adrian, Andrew Lonergan and Sepp van den Berg.

Nicolas Pepe had a rocky start to his Arsenal career but this season, he has come into his own, scoring 16 goals and assisting 5.

This, for one of the worst Arsenal sides of recent years, is hugely impressive and it makes you wonder what he might have been able to achieve under Jurgen Klopp with the German's vastly more talented squad.

A report from Goal in August 2019 claimed that Klopp was interested in Pepe but ultimately decided not to pursue him because he wouldn't be a guaranteed starter at Anfield due to Mohamed Salah's occupation of the right-wing role.

At £72million, that was a wise move but I think if the Ivorian has another impressive year, Klopp might come to regret not find a way to sign Pepe in a more financially sensible way.

For example, the Reds could have agreed a deal with Lille to keep the forward at the Ligue 1 club for another year before signing him the summer afterwards for a reduced fee.

Alas, Arsenal signed him and he's beginning to show why the North London side decided to spend so much to take him to the Emirates Stadium.

Liverpool are now in the market for a new forward and Pepe is the type of player that could make a serious impact at Anfield.

The Reds' front three is ageing and aside from Diogo Jota, they'll all be 30+ next summer and the Merseyside outfit will need to begin looking to the future to ensure they're not held back by old forwards on huge wages.

That's an issue that Arsenal are in fact facing themselves, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang dropping off hugely since he signed a huge new contract with the Gunners and while Mohamed Salah is fives times the player the Gabonese is, that cautionary tale will be a warning to Liverpool.

Given that Salah has directly had a hand in 182 goals in 203 games for Liverpool since he joined the club in 2017, Klopp will have little concern that the Egyptian will somehow lose his Midas touch once hitting 30.

Every summer transfer window is important but following a season that saw Liverpool fail to put up anything remotely resembling a title fight, the Reds need to bounce back in a big way.

Klopp has already signed Ibrahima Konate for £36million and will be considering his next move in the market.