Chelsea have spent over £460m on new players since the consortium led by billionaire Todd Boehy and Clearlake Capital took over the London club in the summer. When the Liverpool manager was confronted with the huge spending by the blue shirts during his press conference on Friday, the German struggled to find the right words.
Klopp was asked if Chelsea’s extreme spending will make it worse for Liverpool to break into the top four in the Premier League.
– Maybe. It might get worse, or it might get better. I don’t know exactly what you want me to say, replied the Liverpool manager.
– It is interesting, Klopp said about the spending.
– I can’t explain it. I have no idea what to say about that. But if the numbers are correct, it is quite impressive.
– I believe in developing players
Chelsea have spent £190m on new players in the last couple of weeks alone, and there could be a good deal more before the January window closes at the end of the month.
This is much, much more money than Liverpool have spent. The Anfield club bought Darwin Nunez from Benfica for £64m this summer. A transfer fee that could rise to £85 million if all clauses kick in. In addition, youngsters Fabio Carvalho (from Fulham for five million pounds) and Calvin Ramsay (from Aberdeen for £6.5 million) came, and now in the January window the Reds have spent £38 million on Cody Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven. There probably won’t be any more purchases in January for the Anfield club.
– I don’t think Chelsea can continue in this way for the next ten years. I do not know. Maybe they can? Other teams will have their ups and downs. We just have to try to keep up. I can’t see that investment will stop in the future, and that means we have to invest too.
– We don’t talk about it now, because it’s always a bit difficult. Generally speaking, I believe in working out. I believe in developing players. I believe in team building, and doing such things 100 percent.
– There are so many good managers out there that it’s crazy, and they also believe in all this. If they also start spending a lot of money in addition to doing these things, then you can’t stop spending money either, otherwise you will have a problem.
Fenway Sports Group put Liverpool up for sale towards the end of last year, but now looks set to end up selling a minority stake in the club to raise fresh capital. Whether it will give Klopp the transfer funds that both he and the supporters are hoping for remains to be seen.
– Even if you are going to build a new team, it does not mean that you need to replace the entire team every year. You have to give the players a chance to take the next step. We already have quite a few players. Then there is quite a lot that is possible. That is the plan we have for the future.
– It does not worry us that other teams spend money. It’s just a fact. We just have to react to it, but not just by spending money.
Two Mediterranean voyagers
Saturday’s meeting at Anfield is between two Mediterranean leaders in the table, it’s number nine against number 10. Probably not many people had imagined that before the season. Both teams have severely underperformed.
Liverpool are ten points up on fourth-placed Newcastle, which gives them Champions League play next season. However, the Reds have played one game less than the north-east club. Klopp is still optimistic that his team will be able to make up for lost time.
– We are in a good position. It might sound strange, because we haven’t played our best football, but in general we are in good hands.
– We are not going to act like crazy. We know our responsibility and will do everything we can to get back on track, but we can’t worry too much.
