Jurgen Klopp provided a fresh view on Liverpool’s transfer policy and the need to get it right, with costly mistakes a hit the club cannot afford to take.
Liverpool look to have unearthed another valuable asset to the team for now and moving forward in Luis Diaz, a transfer that has immediately garnered widespread praise.
The Reds acted swiftly to land the forward and were savvy in their dealings, as they have long been under Klopp’s tenure and with the reliable Michael Edwards, soon to be Julian Ward.
And with the spotlight on Liverpool’s recruitment strategy, Klopp offered a thoughtful view of the process and how the club must get it right as they cannot afford to make a mistake.
“The boys we brought in, there were no bargains,” Klopp said. “It’s not that Ali was not really expensive, today everyone would say, ‘Yes, that was the lowest price I would have paid for him.’
“Similar to Virgil. Then we brought Fabinho, Naby Keita, Sadio and Mo in – so many players.
“It’s no secret but the situation at this club is that our transfers have to hit the ground.
“We can’t make a £40-50 million signing and in the end think, ‘if he’s not playing it’s not so important’ – but it can happen with injuries.
“But it should not happen very often because it’s not that we say, in Germany, that we swim in money.
“It’s a wealthy club, no problems but the policy is clear. We spend what we earn; if we earn more we can spend more, if we earn less we can spend less.
“It doesn’t mean we can do nothing but, for us, it’s very important that we have to do absolutely the right thing.
“We have to think once about it, twice about it, three times about it and maybe a fourth time – and if we think a fifth time about it, the player might go to another club and we cannot change that.
“That’s what we did so far,” he continued. “The club had incredible free transfers with James and Joel and we brought in real talents with Robbo, and we have our own boys and players that were here before I came.”
Interestingly, the manager also touched on the fan involvement in the process and the emotional investment, an approach the club cannot afford to take with so much on the line.
“I think transfers are a very emotional business for the outside world, fans think a lot about it with their heart,” Klopp said.
“We just have to think about it, not of the heart but think about what makes sense. What do we need now? What do we need tomorrow?
“It’s not easy, for us it’s pretty easy, to ignore public pressure.
“Around these dates, it’s always like if you don’t sign [anyone], you don’t work. We see it slightly different.
“With Michael Edwards and his team and now Julian Ward and his team, he have brilliant people here who make really good proposals and we as coaches make good proposals as well.
“In the end, so far we more often than not have found the right solution for this team.”
Fan Comments