The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Inflated price tags now part of game, says Klopp
Liverpool boss insists focus is on player not cost
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp admits it was “not nice” shelling out £75 million for Virgil van Dijk but had little option in current market conditions.
Klopp finally landed his main defensive target after a protracted courtship which included a transfer request in the summer and a public apology to Southampton for a “misunderstanding” over the Reds’ pursuit.
But in bringing the Holland international to Anfield, Klopp set a new world record for a defender, eclipsing the £54m which took Kyle Walker from Tottenham to Manchester City.
The magnitude of the deal does not sit easily with the German but he believes it is no longer possible to keep a lid on spiralling fees and instead chooses to focus on the player, not the price tag.
“It’s a big change in football over a few months and years and we have to adapt to it. That’s how it is, it changed already,” he said. “It’s not nice but that’s the market, that’s the world.
“It’s all about how the market always is, it’s about the need and the opportunity. If you want to sign a player, actually the last thing I actually think about is the price.
“It’s not because I like throwing money around. We only think about the player and there’s one moment when you get the price and you have to accept it or not.”
Van Dijk will not be a Liverpool player when they take on Leicester today, joining officially on January 1 when the transfer window officially opens.
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho responded to Van Dijk’s big money move by reminding Klopp of his threat to quit football if astronomical fees became commonplace.
He will arrive at Anfield 18 months after Klopp insisted he wanted to “do it differently” following Paul Pogba’s thenworld record £92.35m switch to Manchester United, with the German suggesting he did not want to be involved in the game if such amounts became the norm rather than the exception.
Asked about Van Dijk’s move at his press conference for today’s game with Southampton, Mourinho said: “I think the one to speak about it in a specific way has to be Jurgen. If I was one of you I would ask him about his comments about one year ago (when Pogba signed).
“Not speaking specifically about (the Van Dijk) case because in Liverpool they do what they want, and I am nobody to comment about what they do, (but) the reality is if they think the player is the right player for them, and they really want the player, they pay this amount or they don’t have the player.
“That’s the way the market is. “When we compare now the amount of money that certain managers and we try to compare that...not even with 10 years ago, (with) three years ago, it’s to compare the impossible.”