‘We cannot play like Monopoly’ – Jurgen Klopp irritated by Liverpool transfer talk after arrival of Cody Gakpo
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Published 02/01/2023 at 10:31 GMT
The Liverpool manager spoke of his irritation regarding the constant transfer talk surrounding the club. The Reds recently brought Cody Gakpo to the club for a fee which could rise to £45 million. The German also spoke about the players that could leave Anfield, with the contracts of Roberto Firmino, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and James Milner all set to expire next summer.
'A chance Gakpo could feature against Brentford, but I don't know' - Klopp
Jurgen Klopp is irritated by the constant transfer speculation surrounding Liverpool and stressed "we cannot play like Monopoly", claiming there is not an infinite amount of money to spend.
The Reds confirmed the arrival of Cody Gakpo in a transfer reportedly worth up to £45million, and focus has turned to who the club could bring in to bolster their midfield options.
But Klopp was on the defensive when addressing the topic of further reinforcements this month and insists the club is not in a position to "splash the cash".
“I am now seven years and a few months here and every transfer window is pretty much the same,” Klopp said in his pre-match press conference.
“We talk about these things as though money wouldn’t play a role. Like, ‘who cares?’ It is never like this, that you could just spend money. I don’t want to disappoint anybody but we signed an outstanding player like Cody Gakpo and the next thing you can read is, ‘who next?’
“It is like we didn’t have a team, honestly. We cannot play like Monopoly. We never did and I don’t understand it.
“We always sorted our situations and it is a big part of my philosophy, really working full of faith and trust with the players we have and not constantly questioning them by telling them we need another player for that position or that position.
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“With Cody, it is obvious. Not only because we have that void [on the left] now, the quality he has, the timing is perfect — if we waited until the summer, he would be more expensive or someone else would have picked him.
"It is clear that you need real quality in all positions and probably two teams on the same level that you can rotate, and that is what we try to prepare.
“That somebody is now surprised when I say we will not now start splashing the cash — that should be really clear. Again, if there is something we can do — and that means the right player and financial situation — we will do it. And if not, then not.”
In terms of outgoings at Anfield, there are rumours that Roberto Firmino, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and James Milner could all leave the club with their respective contracts expiring next summer.
“Nobody came to me and asked if he can leave,” Klopp explained. “If that should be the case then I would listen because the last thing I would want to do was to force someone to stay at Liverpool. But again, nobody came yet.”
Turning matters back to the pitch, the Reds face Brentford at the Community Stadium on Monday evening. The Reds will leapfrog fifth-placed Tottenham with a victory and move to within a point of Manchester United in the top four.
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