WE DON’T WANT YOUR MONEY

Klopp: ‘It is a clear message. The owners are 100 per cent on it. We want to invest in the team and have the best team because we have our aims and dreams’

JURGEN KLOPP had a simple message for Barcelona, amid their unyielding attempts to lure Philippe Coutinho away from Anfield.

Liverpool are a club intent on building a future for their hopes, he said, not one who want to rip up those dreams for a quick hit of useless cash.

There was frustration from the Reds boss about the issue being Coutinho, 25, even though injury prevents him from being in the Champions League squad that touched down in Germany yesterday.

“It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it, it’s that I can’t change my answers – because there is nothing else to say,” said the Liverpool boss.

“If Barcelona say they will bid whatever money, we don’t want it. It is a clear message. The owners are 100 per cent clear on it. We don’t want money, we want to invest in the team and have the best team because we have our aims and dreams. That is the message.

“So when I said it’s not important what I think, that is what I mean. We are 100 per cent clear on it. There is nothing else to say.”

In fact, in that one answer, Klopp said plenty. Liverpool are a club who simply no longer need to cash in on their best players, especially when they are under long contracts.

They have a reputation, perhaps unfairly, of being a selling club because players such as Mascherano, Torres, Suarez, and latterly Sterling, all forced their way out of the Anfield exit in pursuit of better offers. No longer though. The Reds have the resources to compete with the best in Europe on wages and transfer fees, as their pursuit of Virgil van Dijk (left) – ahead of Manchester City and Chelsea – shows. They also have the will, and what tonight’s game presents to them, is the opportunity to go head-to-head on the same stage. Which is why, when Klopp had dealt with the Coutinho issue, he was asked just how important the showdown with Hoffenheim is. The inference was clear. Lose, and it could not only cost the club millions, but seriously dent those dreams and aims. But losing is not on the German’s agenda.

“People ask me this before the Europa League final, the semi-finals, whatever,” the manager added.

“It’s the only game we play tomorrow and, yes, it is big because we can go in the Champions League. You can see the opportunity in different ways.

“We have already qualified for European competition, which