Jurgen Klopp says he is expecting a “strange” summer transfer window, and doubts whether the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland or Jadon Sancho will be involved in big-money moves.
The Liverpool manager was asked at a press conference on Friday about his own club’s plans to strengthen their squad – plans which may be strongly affected if the Reds fail to secure Champions League qualification for next season.
Liverpool head to Manchester United on Thursday knowing anything less than a win could cost them the chance of a top-four finish, and Reds officials are well aware of the financial implications of that. Klopp, though, spoke bullishly, insisting his team will be stronger next season regardless of whether they make big moves in the market.
What’s been said?
Asked if he knew what would be possible in the summer yet, Klopp smiled: “Yeah, not a lot!
“It is always how it is. What happens depends on the business, if someone wants to leave, if we sell, stuff like this. That’s why we can never really plan early.
“Not playing Champions League doesn’t help obviously, but it is not our biggest problem.
“The market will be really strange. I hear a lot about big-money moves, is Mbappe going or not, Haaland, Sancho, these kind of things. I don’t see that happening a lot this summer because the football world is still not in the same place it was before.
“Getting players back [from injury] makes us already better. These are our first transfers. We don’t know exactly when that will happen, but it will happen. All the rest, we have to see.
“If we don’t go to Champions League it is not good but there is still a chance. But if not, then we have to deal with that.”
Careful what you wish for
Klopp was also asked how confident he was that Liverpool could claw back the ground they lost to newly crowned champions Manchester City this season – especially given the fact that Pep Guardiola’s side would appear to have the means to make big-money transfers of their own in the summer.
He said: “And Chelsea, and United! City and Chelsea always had [financial] advantages and we still won the league and the Champions League. So it is about our situation. I never look at other clubs and think ‘they can do this’ or ‘we can’t do that’.
“I am not interested in being the coach of the best team in the world. I am interested in being the coach of the team who can beat the best team in the world. And if two or three of them play in our league, then we will try to beat them.
“It’s absolutely not a situation to moan or cry about. Our situation is fine.”
He added: “A year ago nobody knew how football will go on. One year later, people speak about ‘what can we do in the transfer market?’
“People talk about changing the structure completely, like the German model. Well, I can tell you the budget will go down massively. Having more say in the club, changing the structure and the ownership model, and then at the same time signing Haaland for £150 million? That doesn’t work together.
“We have to use our situation better than we did this year. This was not the season when we could have become champion. No chance. But we could have had five, six, seven points more, with exactly the same situation we had? Yes, and we should have. That is something I don’t like too much.
“The situation is better than I would have thought a year ago, with the financial situation, but everyone suffers and we are asked about signing players for this or that.
“We will see how the market develops but for sure it will not be an early market.”