You may have heard a famous quote attributed to legendary economist John Maynard Keynes: “When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?” On Saturday, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp embodied this epigram, as he admitted that his opinion on exorbitant transfer spending has “evolved.”
Back in 2016, when Manchester United broke the world’s transfer fee record in re-acquiring Paul Pogba from Juventus for £89.3 million, Klopp harshly criticized the deal. In the two years since however, Klopp’s Liverpool have become massive big spenders themselves; and he does not care one iota if you call him a hypocrite over this.
“That’s the problem these days, hey?” Klopp said at a news conference ahead of a preseason friendly against his former club, Borussia Dortmund in Charlotte.
“Whatever bull shit you say, nobody will forget it. On the other side, it’s still kind of true. I couldn’t have imagined since then that the world would change like it has. Two years ago £100 million was a crazy number. Since then the world has changed completely.”
Klopp said on July 29, 2016, as the Pogba deal was closing:
“If you bring one player in for £100m and he gets injured, then it all goes through the chimney,” he said.
“The day that this is football, I’m not in a job anymore, because the game is about playing together.
“That is how everybody in football understands it. You always want to have the best, but building the group is necessary to be successful.
“Other clubs can go out and spend more money and collect top players. I want to do it differently. I would even do it differently if I could spend that money.
“I don’t know exactly how much money we could spend because nobody has told me, ‘No, you can’t do this.’
“If I spend money, it is because I am trying to build a team, a real team. Barcelona did it. You can win championships, you can win titles, but there is a manner in which you want it.”
Since that deal closed Pogba’s transfer fee has been eclipsed four times, including the sale of one Liverpool player (Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona, £106). The other three are Ousmane Dembele (Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona, £97 million), Kylian Mbappe (Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain, £120 million) and Neymar (Barcelona to PSG, £198 million).
In 2018 alone, Liverpool have finalized/completed the purchase of three players who rank among the top 30 most expensive transfer deals of all time.
They bring in the 30th most expensive player ever in Naby Keita from RB Leipzig (£52.75 million) this year; having signed him last year. Anfield broke the transfer fee record for a goalkeeper this week in signing Alisson from AS Roma (£56 million, 26th most expensive player all time).
In January, they also made the most expensive signing ever for a defender (11th most all time for all players) in Virgil van Dijk from Southampton (£75 million). They’ve also added two more £40 million+ players in Fabinho and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
In other words, LFC is splashing the cash with the best of them.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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