Liverpool target rejected new bid this year after being pictured in Reds shirt and blocked transfer

Liverpool were supposedly interested in signing Piotr Zielinski last summer - eight years on from the Reds first failing to land the Poland international. The 30-year-old ultimately joined Inter Milan on a free transfer when his Napoli contract expired.

But he has claimed that he again had interest from Liverpool before he made the decision to move to the San Siro.

“Liverpool, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Juventus were interested in me,” he revealed to Kanal Sportowy via FcInterNews. “I had specific requests from Barcelona. I like Italy. When I arrived at Napoli, I felt good, it would have been difficult for me to go to England, for example.

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“I would have considered Spain, but the priority was to continue my career in Italy. I’m at Inter, but Napoli is also a great club and I would have been happy to extend my contract.”

While he might not have wanted to consider a switch to the Premier League this time around, that certainly wasn’t the case back in 2016 when Klopp twice tried to bring the midfielder to Anfield - with their interest even pre-dating his arrival - and he was even pictured in a Liverpool shirt.

Tracked by the Reds as a teenager, he stayed with local club Zaglebie Lubin before moving to Udinese aged just 17. Klopp’s first attempt then came less than four years later in January 2016 when the Poland international was midway through his second season on loan at Empoli from Udinese.

His parent club were prepared to sell him at the time and the midfielder agonised over his future, even meeting with Klopp, but ultimately couldn’t bring himself to cut short his loan spell with Empoli.

“There were days when I was walking out of home, looked into my mobile and I didn’t know what to do,” Zielinski told Poland’s Przeglad Sportowy. “I spoke a lot with Konrad Golos and Tomasz Dawidowski – my managers from the agency representing me.

“Everyone said: ‘Great offer, Klopp wants you, it’s a fairytale in terms of finances’. All fine, but I wasn’t convinced. I was driving my car and I said to my girlfriend: ‘No, red light, I’m not leaving’.

“I felt great in Empoli, I didn’t want to leave the lads when we were battling for the European places. My head was a mess.

“Liverpool finally got a plane and I met with Jurgen Klopp. He said he wanted me in his team. I saw a different world and after returning my head was even a bigger mess.

Liverpool would return to try and sign Zielinksi the following summer and faced competition from Napoli and AC Milan. Now 22 years old, the Poland international was then pictured in a Reds shirt, only for Udinese to refuse to sell to the Merseysiders.

An £11.75m bid from Liverpool was rejected as Ian Ayre, then the Reds' chief executive, met with Udinese owner Giampaolo Pozzo on numerous occasions but found negotiations difficult. Zielinski's personal preference was said to be a move to Anfield, with Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis even telling the media that the player was doing “everything he could” to force through a move to Merseyside.

But Pozzo continued to reject Liverpool's advances, perhaps put out by their expectation they’d get their man and that he had already been pictured in the shirt, and instead accepted an identical bid from Napoli.

Zielinski would spurn the offer as he held out for a move to Anfield. Indeed, the Reds believed their offer was more favourable to Udinese than Napoli's, due to the structure of the deal and the presence of a sell-on clause.

But once Liverpool were forced to concede defeat in their efforts to sign the Pole, he instead agreed to join Napoli with the Italian side completing a £13m deal in August 2016.

“I really wanted to start the preparations for the new season with a new team as soon as possible,” he revealed the following month. “I knew that Liverpool wanted me badly and I knew they would return to the talks as I got that promise in January.

“It didn’t work out for them with Udinese at the end. Milan’s offer was dependent on the club’s takeover by Chinese investors. With Napoli, I knew the coach and lots of the lads from the team. I’m happy I came here.

“I think it is ideal in terms of my football characteristics. I’ve met plenty of technical players. I found myself in Napoli and I feel more confident day by day.”

After realising they would not be able to reach an agreement with Udinese, Liverpool switched their attention elsewhere and signed Gini Wijnaldum from Newcastle United in a £25m deal in late-July instead.

Then 25, the Netherlands international was proven in the Premier League at least, and the Reds would have no regrets as he cemented his place as a club legend during his five years at Anfield and won both the Premier League and Champions League.

Yet if Zielinski is to be believed, Liverpool interest in his services remained. Even at 30 years old, the opportunity to sign him on a Bosman transfer would have been attractive.

But by this point settled in Italy, he opted for Inter Milan instead and signed a four-year contract. While he would admit that his switch to the San Siro has proven difficult so far in the same interview with Kanal Sportowy, it would appear that this time the door on any potential switch to Anfield has been closed for good.