Back in 2016, when Manchester United broke the world’s transfer fee record in re-acquiring Paul Pogba from Juventus for £89.3 million, Liverpool Manager Jurgen Klopp harshly criticized the deal. In the two years since however, Klopp’s Liverpool have become massive big spenders themselves; and in late July, the Reds boss admitted that his opinion on heavy transfer spending has certainly evolved.
That said, Klopp told Monday’s edition of the German football magazine Kicker that his club would never purchase a player for a fee in the neighborhood of the now world-record €222 million (£198.5m) that Paris Saint-Germain paid for Neymar last summer.
Jurgen Klopp said three times that there is “no chance” his club, which broke the world transfer fee record for both a defender and a goalkeeper in 2018, would spend as much money on a player as PSG did for the Brazilian attacker.
Following Philippe Coutinho’s £142m departure to Barcelona in January, Liverpool have invested heavily this summer, signing Naby Keita, Fabinho, Xherdan Shaqiri and goalkeeper Alisson for a combined total of around £170m.
Queried about the prospects of John W. Henry’s Fenway Sports Group (Liverpool’s ownership), signing off on a fee in the neighborhood of Neymar’s, Klopp responded:
“No chance, no chance, no chance. We are not owned by a state like it’s the case at two big clubs. We have our limits.”
He then went into detail on the escalating arms race that has occurred in the transfer market, which has resulted in runaway inflation for individual players transfer fees. He even referenced his club’s £142 million sale of Philippe Coutinho.
“It feels like €100m back then is €500m today. When Neymar joined PSG for €222m, I shook myself,” Klopp added. “Back then I had an opinion, but an incredible lot has happened since.”
“In 2017, Neymar joined Paris, Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele joined Barcelona for a lot of money, and Kylian Mbappe (went to) Paris.
“This opened the whole thing, the money’s on the market. Now, if Liverpool wants a player, the other clubs want a bit of the cake too. That’s the story. And you must also keep in mind that players like Mo Salah, Sadio Mane or Robert Firmino, players we bought for €30m to €40m, have a different value on the transfer market these days. That’s part of the business.”
He also said his club would not fulfill every single transfer request because they “have a conservative leadership.”
Of course, many would argue against that idea, as Anfield spend reportedly £179 million on four players this summer: Naby Keita, Alisson Becker, Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabinho.
Without a doubt, Liverpool was the most aggressive, freest spending club in England during the 2018 summer transfer window, but as Klopp has said here, they still have a very well defined ceiling in place. Jurgen Klopp and his team will take on Crystal Palace in five hours.
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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