Last summer, Liverpool had a transfer window that was not just the best that they have ever had, but among the most fruitful that any club anywhere has ever had. The Merseyside club spent north of £170 million on goalkeeper Alisson, and midfielders Naby Keita, Fabinho and Xherdan Shaqiri.
It resulted in a Champions League title and a runner-up finish in the Premier League that accumulated the third most total points in the history of the competition.
This summer, they have yet to make a single signing, but it appears some major transfer activity is on the way, given what manager Jurgen Klopp himself has had to say.
The German says his team, or any other for that matter, must “splash the cash” in the summer transfer window in order to remain competitive and relevant.
After all, standing pat actually equals dropping down. If you’re not improving continuously, then you’re falling behind, as you know your competitors are strengthening.
Jurgen Klopp was very critical back in 2016, when Liverpool’s rivals Manchester United broke the world transfer fee record to bring Paul Pogba back. Last summer he walked those comments back, showing that his opinion on this topic evolved.
Speaking with German broadcaster ZDF today, he was asked about those Pogba comments again, and he responded (transcript Sky Sports):
“Back when I was in Germany, Bayern had a bottomless pit of money, like £100m. In today’s market, that gets you one centre-back. So this bottomless pit of money is enough to buy one player in today’s world and that doesn’t even cover their wages.”
“The market has changed more than I expected, but I stand by what I said. Maybe things were lost in translation but my point was, if we reach a point where football is solely about money and not football, then I’m leaving; and I still feel the same way about it.”
“Liverpool is an ambitious club and if we didn’t spend the same amount of money as others, we wouldn’t be able to compete. Everybody’s splashing the cash, so we have to do the same.”
It’s also worth noting how at the time, when criticism of the #Pogback deal ran rampant, then United manager Jose Mourinho said that over time the Pogba price would not seem egregious. Mourinho was quickly proven right via Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Philippe Coutinho etc.
Yesterday morning, we had an exclusive with Liverpool’s all-time leading scorer Ian Rush and we asked him thoughts on LFC’s transfer window. The Welshman expects some deals to get done before the deadline hits.
“You’re looking to improve all the time,” Rush told us by telephone Thursday.
“We’ve got a great squad, but some people come and some go, so it wouldn’t surprise me if there were one or two more signings to be made.”
“At the end of the day we were quite lucky last season, we didn’t have too many injuries; it might not happen again this year, so we have to be aware of that, and we have standards to set and we have to make signings.”
As talented and deep as Liverpool is, they have squad needs just like every other team. They can start by trying to find a replacement to back-up striker Daniel Sturridge and defender Alberto Moreno. Central Dejan Lovren could be on the move as well, so they may look for reinforcements at that position too.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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