How Manchester City fans reacted when Liverpool first joined Florian Wirtz race, Arne Slot would smirk if he saw it

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Liverpool are closing in on the signing of Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen.

The Reds are now close to announcing a new club-record signing after a £126m bid was accepted by the Bundesliga outfit, who have already sold Jeremie Frimpong to Liverpool this summer.

TBR Football understand Liverpool had a £113m bid rejected towards the end of last week as Bayer Leverkusen held firm on their €150m (£126m) asking price, which has now been met.

As Florian Wirtz edges closer to becoming a Liverpool player, it is now quite interesting to see how Manchester City fans reacted when the Reds initially joined them in the race for his signature.

Manchester City fans felt Liverpool had no chance of signing Florian Wirtz

Manchester City were first on the scene to sign Wirtz, but quickly turned attention towards a deal for Rayan Cherki when it became apparent the Germany international preferred Liverpool.

Before that news emerged – however – Manchester City fans actually laughed off Liverpool’s chances.

One Manchester City supporter posted on X (previously known as Twitter): “They’ll get rejected like they always do.”

The irony is that it sounds like Wirtz actually gave Liverpool encouragement to pursue the deal.

Then, a second Manchester City fan questioned how Arne Slot would be able to outdo Pep Guardiola in this transfer battle, writing: “Join the best manager of all time who’s courted you for 12 months to be the centrepiece of his new project, or (join) one hit wonder Slot’s tricky Reds built on a 32 and 33-year-old (Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk) who’ve just secured their final payday.”

Evidently, the 22-year-old has now opted for the latter.

A third Manchester City fan even compared Liverpool’s chances of signing Wirtz to them becoming the new Pope at the time – writing “I have entered the conclave to become Pope” – which surely makes this signing all the more sweet for those at Anfield.

Elsewhere, another Manchester City fan doubted FSG (Fenway Sports Group) would actually meet the £126m asking price, posting a GIF of somebody disappearing with the caption: “Liverpool owners when they hear the £150m asking price.”

A different Manchester City supporter even claimed Liverpool had as much chance of signing the German as Burnley did back at the beginning of May, mockingly posting: “BREAKING: Burnley have entered the race to sign Florian Wirtz.”

Finally, a sixth fan joked that Liverpool could only pull this deal off on the FIFA game, saying: “Liverpool, you can only sign Wirtz on FIFA. (You have) zero pull.”

Oh, the irony.

Manchester City could end up with bragging rights over Liverpool

Whilst Liverpool have clearly managed to negotiate more of a headline move here, compared to Manchester City and their £30.5m signing of Cherki, the Citizens could end up having the last laugh.

Like Wirtz, the France international is also immensely talented, scoring 12 goals and impressively providing 20 assists in 44 appearances last season, whereas the Bayer Leverkusen No.10 netted 16 and assisted a further 15 in 45 appearances.

Their numbers are close, but the fees are certainly not, with Liverpool paying roughly £100m more than Manchester City for their new source of creativity.

The ambition is admirable, but if Cherki ends up outdoing Wirtz in the Premier League, the Manchester City fans above would surely let Liverpool know about it.