Jurgen Klopp has made it clear he had no issues with Fenway Sports Group’s spending during his time at Liverpool, as they “never overdid it” like other clubs.
There is a belief among certain supporters that Klopp was underfunded throughout his tenure as Liverpool manager, and that he would have enjoyed more success with more money.
But as he winds down his final days in charge, the German has insisted he was happy with doing it “the right way.”
“I could say now, ‘yes, you don’t back me enough and I could have been more successful’, but I never saw it that way,” he told journalists including the Times‘ Paul Joyce.
“We had discussions about it, but I would have never brought these discussions in public. I didn’t want to bring any feelings to the outside world that we were not united.
“If we had an argument then we have it internally, but outside we say: ‘Well, that’s our way, that’s how we do it’. I don’t understand it any other way.
“If it would help to invite the public into discussions. I am the first to do so, but it doesn’t help.
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“For us, it is the Liverpool Way. We do it properly and do it the right way; we don’t overspend, we always spend what we earned either on the team, a stand or a building.
“This is a healthy club. You can say Barcelona are not healthy, but they are still up there. I don’t think we could do it that way.”
FSG’s ethos in running Liverpool has been to ensure the club is self-sustaining, with Klopp’s example of Barcelona a perfect way to describe what they are trying to avoid.
His final season saw both Nottingham Forest and Everton docked points for breaches of the Premier League‘s spending rules, while 115 charges are still looming over Man City.
Chelsea are under investigation after self-reporting financial irregularities under their previous ownership, which also overlapped FSG’s time at Liverpool.
As he continued, Klopp emphasised how Liverpool “never overdid it” like those clubs.
“It is not an emergency case and you hear that beep beep beep and it is close to [flatlining],” he explained.
“It is really healthy, a very vital club with a wonderful training ground, sensational stadium, financially not bad.
“That is what I am most proud of, that we could manage that, with all the things that happen over the years, in crazy times, we never overdid it.
“These points deductions and stuff like that, it’s horrible.
“I am not sure they cheated on purpose but somehow they knew, ‘mmmm, it’s probably not 100 percent right but maybe we can get through that’, and obviously they couldn’t.
“I really like the way we did it.”
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