![\"LIVERPOOL,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_GettyImages-468351190.jpg\")
Then Liverpool goalkeeper Brad Jones pictured during a training session at Melwood on April 2, 2015(Image: John Powell\/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)<\/p>\nBrad Jones has revealed just how close he was to re-joining Liverpool in the summer of 2016Then Liverpool goalkeeper Brad Jones pictured during a training session at Melwood on April 2, 2015(Image: John Powell\/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Liverpool goalkeeping department has been one of the club\u2019s most stable in recent years. Alisson Becker has been the undisputed first choice in goal since joining the club in a record \u00a365m switch from AS Roma in the summer of 2018, with only minor changes taking place when it comes to the Reds\u2019 back-up options.<\/p>\n
That looks set to change this summer, with a \u00a329m deal for Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili already agreed and the futures of Caoimhin Kelleher and Vitezslav Jaros both uncertain.<\/p>\n
Liverpool<\/a> are not used to being in such a situation, but before the arrival of Alisson and promotion of Kelleher from the club\u2019s academy, it was far more common.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Inside story of how Mohamed Salah Liverpool contract problem was solved as new deal signed<\/a>READ MORE: Liverpool first summer transfer deal decided as Arne Slot gives away move<\/a><\/p>\n Simon Mignolet and Loris Karius both battled to be number one under Jurgen Klopp<\/a>, while the Reds worked through the likes of Adam Bogdan, Danny Ward and Alex Manninger in reserve.<\/p>\n However, Liverpool nearly re-signed one former goalkeeper in 2016 after he spent the summer back training with the Reds.<\/p>\n Brad Jones<\/a>, who is a boyhood Liverpool fan, first joined the club from Middlesbrough in a \u00a32.3m deal in August 2010. Initially serving as back-up to Pepe Reina, he was then reserve to Mignolet and even briefly instated as first choice when the Belgian was out of form.<\/p>\n Making 27 appearances in five years at the club, he left at the end of his contract in the summer of 2015. But after stints with Bradford City and NEC Nijmegen, he has revealed he was on the cusp of re-joining the Reds just one year later.<\/p>\n With Klopp<\/a> now Liverpool manager, training under the German proved to be an eye-opening experience.<\/p>\n \u201cI was free again (in the summer of 2016) and had kept a good relationship with the goalkeeper coach at Liverpool, John Achterberg,\u201d he recalled in an interview with Optus Sport<\/a> earlier this year. \u201cHe called me and said, \u2018why don\u2019t you come in and train with us?’<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018You can get fit, and there might be a possibility of something opening up. We\u2019ve just signed Karius, don\u2019t know if Mignolet is going to stay. It could be number three, it could be number two.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cBut that was basically the reason why I left. I was sick of being number three and number two. My whole thing was I need to play, I\u2019ve had enough.<\/p>\n \u201cI was pigeon holed. I had so many people come to me and say, \u2018you\u2019re a great number two\u2019. I want to play, man.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day before a game, the team got announced and in my head I was fuming, even though I knew. I must have sat on the bench for like 300-400 games.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I knew what was going to happen and I was annoyed every time. I was like, \u2018I trained the house down this week\u2019. The boys were coming on my team because I was the one that was in form, but I didn\u2019t play.<\/p>\n \u201cSo those things had started to build, and I kept saying no. I had a few offers but number two, number two, number two, which is why I went to Bradford but it didn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n \u201cI then got the offer to come back in and train and was, \u2018okay, let\u2019s see where it goes’. But I got to train with Klopp.<\/p>\n \u201cSo on my first day I drive in, back to the same car park I\u2019d been coming in for five years but I had to park in the visitors space! And as I get out of the car, I see Klopp leaning up against a mini-van having a smoke.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I was like: \u2018Okay, who\u2019s this guy?\u2019 I\u2019m already thinking: \u2018He\u2019s got no idea who I am\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cBut as I start walking over and went to put my hand out, he gives me the big Klopp hug and was like, \u2018Welcome back, come in, just enjoy it!\u2019 I just said thanks for having me. \u2018No, no, no, come, come, go in!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cIt was cool, I hadn\u2019t experienced the whole Klopp experience, but man, I have not ran as much in the rest of my career as I did in those sessions, it was brutal, it was so full-on because it was pre-season.<\/p>\n