NO EXODUS IF WE MISS OUT ON TOP FOUR
Klopp insists if stars ask to leave, he doesn’t want them!
JURGEN KLOPP insists Liverpool are strong enough to withstand a season outside the Champions League and will keep their star names if they miss out on the top four. Liverpool have slumped into the most turbulent period of Klopp’s reign and the manager understands why, after taking 10 points from their last 11 fixtures, concerns have crept into the minds of some fans. He does not expect past achievements to exempt him from criticism.
‘If you want to doubt me in this moment, then I think that is possible because of the results we got,’ he said.
Klopp has taken Liverpool into the Champions League in each of his four full seasons at the helm but the chances of him taking that sequence to five have decreased and this campaign has echoes of 2009-10, when Rafa Benitez’s squad were squeezed out by Tottenham.
That set Liverpool back in terms of lost revenue and an inability to attract top players to Anfield — they only played in Europe’s elite competition once (2014) in the next seven years — but Klopp is adamant that history will not repeat itself should they fall short this season.
‘This club will not be regularly outside of the Champions League,’ Klopp said.
‘This year is difficult, we know that. But the potential and the power of the club is a completely different one. The team we have, the squad we have together, if they are not all injured, is a different one from 10 years ago.
‘But we are ready to do battle in this era and with the team we have. This season you need momentum and we never really got it. But it says nothing about the future. This club is in a really good position — in difficult times, obviously, but in a better position than other clubs I’d say.
‘I understand about what happened in the past, but nobody has to worry about the future of the club because it is in good hands and we have a really good team.
‘That is obviously the best basis for a good future together.’
Talk of the future raised questions about what will happen to Mohamed Salah, who was substituted — much to his obvious anger — during Thursday’s 1-0 defeat by Chelsea. His agent, Ramy Abbas, cryptically posted a full stop on Twitter in the hours after the game.
Salah has spoken out twice in recent months — once to a Spanish newspaper, once to a Norwegian TV station — about his ‘future being in Liverpool’s hands’.
He is contracted until 2023 and the club, as yet, have not made an approach about opening formal talks on an extension.
Klopp is not flustered by the situation and does not expect there to be an exodus if Liverpool miss out on the Champions League. The only player likely to leave is Gini Wijnaldum, who is out of contract, but Klopp would like him to stay.
‘I know we have loyalty of the players,’ said Klopp. ‘It’s not a situation now where a player says to me, “Next year we don’t have Champions League so I have to leave”. That will not happen. I know them well enough for that not to happen.
‘It will not be an issue with new players, I can’t see that. We said it years back that if a player doesn’t want to come here because we don’t play Champions League next year then I don’t want them.
‘And if a player wants to leave because we don’t have Champions League then I don’t want him. It’s not a personal thing. You need to find the right squad for the challenges you face and then go for it.’