Liverpool owners ready to spend to lift title, insists Klopp
JURGEN KLOPP insists Liverpool are ready to go head-to-head with Manchester United and will not flinch when it comes to spending big this summer. Liverpool are on the strongest footing they have been in many years and Klopp will look for his team to make a statement of intent today at Old Trafford; whichever team is successful will become hot favourites to finish runners-up to Manchester City. There is a feeling that Liverpool are not too far away from being genuine title challengers and with the right additions in the next window, the progress that has been made over the past two years will be accelerated: Klopp is looking to strengthen with a goalkeeper, a midfielder and a striker. One name on his wishlist is Napoli midfielder Jorginho, the Brazilborn Italy international, who has also been linked with United. He would command a sizable fee but Klopp, who had previously expressed misgivings about huge transfer fees, will be ready to spend. ‘I think the transfer fees only jumped in the last year,’ said Klopp. ‘We cannot say the exact numbers but was it £40m for Mo Salah? I would say that’s decent money. This club will do what we have to do; the owners are ready for that but it doesn’t mean we only spend in this (expensive) category.’ Klopp has enjoyed an excellent return when spending heavily and three of the best examples — Virgil Van Dijk (£75million), Salah, February’s Premier League Player of the Month and Sadio Mane (£30m) — will form the nucleus of his team in Manchester. Van Dijk has been particularly impressive figure since arriving from Southampton, helping Liverpool keep five clean sheets in the last seven matches and Klopp has pointed to the Holland international as an example of why money should not be an issue if
the quality is right. ‘When the player is the right player it is not important how expensive he was,’ said Klopp. ‘He needs to fit in the team, that’s why we paid the price.. It has to be right. You can’t say you want a player, they give you a number and you say: “Right we will pay that!” That’s not how it should work. ‘Probably a few teams have players and other clubs will want to buy them. But we all need to stay kind of serious. If the player is the right player, this club will pay big money and let the group grow. If it’s not the right player, the value of the player doesn’t matter.’ Klopp, who has described this clash as “the biggest game I can imagine”. Salah has certainly proven value for money and he will be looking to put right the one wrong in his personal list of achievements this season: having scored against Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City, he wants to complete the set against United. ‘I try to look for a goal in any game I play,’ Salah told Sky Sports. ‘I thought already about that. I’m very excited to play in this game because this is the only team in the top six I did not score against. (David) De Gea is a great goalkeeper but I will try to score.’