Klopp thrilled by new Liverpool star Diaz and hopes Reds can still land Carvalho

Jurgen Klopp insists Liverpool remain interested in Fulham midfielder Fabio Carvalho and has expressed excitement over the signing of Luis Diaz.

The Reds struck the biggest deal of the January window by landing Colombia forward Diaz from Porto for £37.5million.

However, they ran out of time to secure the services of Fulham star Carvalho.

The Portuguese teenager will now see out the remainder of his deal with the Championship leaders before becoming a free agent this summer.

Carvalho can negotiate with foreign clubs between now and then, but Klopp is still hopeful Liverpool can win the race for his signature.

“We are still interested; it would be crazy if not,” the Liverpool boss said. “But at the moment it’s not in our own hands.

“[Fulham boss] Marco Silva said it all in his press conference, this kind of deal was late in the transfer window, and it didn’t work out in the end. We will see what happens.”

Meanwhile, Klopp explained why the signing of Diaz fills him with excitement, but urged fans to give the 25-year-old time to adapt.

“We signed him because we like pretty much everything about him, that is how it is,” Klopp said.

“I have followed him now for a while, not only since we played them [Porto] twice in the Champions League. He is an exceptional player; he has the speed, the skillset, the character to have a really good career. We all want him to have this career with us.

“Nowadays you have 16, 17-year-old boys playing at the highest level, maybe he is a bit of a late bloomer, but the bloom is exceptional.

“I am really happy that we could get him in now and we can help him, and he can help us. His story is a special one, I like players with special stories behind them. Now he is one of us and we can’t wait to welcome him here and started working together.”

He added: “If Luis were to come here, step on the pitch and be immediately at his absolute best and playing better than all the other players would be really strange because we’ve played together for a while.

“He needs time. I haven’t even seen him yet, he’s not here at the training ground, so maybe we should wait a little bit.

“But we are really happy and excited about the signing; it is a really good sign that we work on all fronts to improve this team. In football, we have to be successful now and, in the future, he can help with both and that is a really good thing.”