They were. As were Dortmund.
I wonder if that £1m fee didn't indeed match some sort of minimum release clause as a few have speculated (perhaps an "if one of the clubs on this list offers this much, I'm sold" kind of thing). If so, I imagine it was a case of Sami saying "well, he's going to be gone no matter what, so I want him to go to LFC."
Been talking to a German friend of mine and he can't believe we've bought him for so little, or that we've bought him at all really. He didn't know too much about him other than that he's supposed to be one of the very best prospects in the Bundesliga and it's therefore shocking that he's left Germany at all at such a young age.
Also, how great would it be if he really has been a lifelong Red, as that quote of his loosely suggests?