COMMENT: You can dress it up. Put a positive spin on it. But rattled by Chelsea. Rocked by Saudi. Liverpool are wobbling. They're panicking. And no matter how Jurgen Klopp sells it, Wataru Endo isn't the fix they needed...

It's a strange one. Baffling. 16m quid on a 30 year-old from mid-table (at best) VfB Stuttgart. No competition for his signature. Certainly no world-beater. And also no guarantee that he can handle the demands of the Premier League. Or better yet, that he can handle the demands of competing for the top four in the Premier League. Just what is Klopp playing at?

Endo is a panic buy, if ever there was one. And he's a signing we just haven't seen from Liverpool in this Klopp era. Christian Poulsen? Charlie Adam? They're signings of another time. Almost another club. Over 30 years of age. From another country. From a struggling club. Endo is a signing that just doesn't chime. But it does fit with what we've seen out of Anfield these past three weeks.

Snubbed by Romeo Lavia. Humiliated by Moises Caicedo. Liverpool have been floored. Humiliated. All that history. Tradition. All of it rejected for Chelsea and Todd Boehly's chequebook.

And then there's the Saudis. Fabinho to Al-Ittihad. Jordan Henderson, the captain, to Al-Ettifaq. Players neither of which Jurgen Klopp wanted to lose - nor expected to. But both saw something better in their futures by quitting Anfield for the SPL.

So after losing - unexpectedly - two Champions League winners. After being rejected - so publicly - by two of the League's brightest young midfielders. Liverpool are clearly shaken. Rattled. And Endo has arrived to plug some leaks.

Now it can be argued that losing out on Caicedo and Lavia is no great setback. Particularly given the ridiculous fees Boehly is paying for the pair.

Caicedo isn't a £115m player. He's a good player. A potentially excellent player. But it's all what-ifs at the moment. Chelsea haven't bought the finished article. They've gambled on potential. With Brighton, the Ecuadorian has had his moments in the Premier League. But he's no Rodri, nor Declan Rice. He could be. He might get close. But it isn't going to happen in the coming season.

Which is the same we can say about Lavia. Again, at almost 60m quid, it's all about potential with the 19 year-old. A good, young player. But that's it. He's not going to run the midfield this season. He's not going to dictate games. He's another roll of the dice. Following on from Caicedo, the public spurning by Lavia has left Liverpool frustrated - and in some quarters humiliated. But the reality is these are two players who weren't going to drive Liverpool up the table. At least not in the short-term.

Yes, criticism can be leveled at Liverpool's late move for Caicedo. And yes, the same can said for the pedantic haggling with Southampton over Lavia's price. But where it matters. On the pitch. At least in the short-term Liverpool have not lost anything.

But this is all the stuff of 20:20 and positive spin. The fact is Klopp and Liverpool tried for both players. They had agreements with their respective clubs. But were rejected - publicly - when it came to the players needing to make a choice.

And it had nowt to do with money. Liverpool's willingness to meet the of their respective clubs is proof of that. This is all came down to reputation. Connection. And what Klopp and Liverpool attempted to sell to Lavia and Caicedo fell short of Boehly and Mauricio Pochettino's pitch.

Again, for this Liverpool. For Klopp's Liverpool. This is something new. And their response with the move for Endo does suggest they've been shaken by how events - so publicly - have been played out.

This wasn't in script. Endo wasn't in the script. Indeed, you fancy Klopp would've insisted they'd fought harder to keep hold of James Milner if he knew what Steven Gerrard had planned. We've seen not only a dismantling of Klopp's Champions League winners this summer, but also their plans for rejuvenation. As we say, they've been blindsided - by the Saudis and also by the apparent attraction of Chelsea. Given the past year. Given a straight choice between the two clubs. The two managers. That just shouldn't happen. But it did. And now Liverpool scrambling.

Wataru Endo is an unplanned signing. A player to plug gaps - they'll hope - created by a summer market that has left Liverpool in a far weaker state than when it opened. No matter how Klopp sells it, Chelsea and the SPL has the club wobbling.