Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp rarely leaves the media searching too hard for a quote from his press conferences, yet one of his previous headlines has come back to bite the German.
When Paul Pogba joined Manchester United back in 2016 for £100m, Jurgen Klopp was keen to express his disgust for the gluttonous spending that plagued football. At the time, Klopp told the media that he would have to quit his job if he ever spent that much on a player.
That was noted by the Liverpool Echo, in light of Liverpool acquiring Darwin Nunez for £85m, which equals out as €100m, with the suggestion being that it was hypocritical of Klopp to sanction such a signing. They also carried his response when those quotes were put to Klopp, with the journalist in question also asking how much the transfer market had changed.
“A lot, obviously a lot. These kind of things happen. When you want to sign a striker as exciting as Darwin is, that’s the market and you have to pay the price.”
“I said so many things in my life and life caught me then later and showed me that my imagination was obviously not clear enough for how quickly life can change. That’s how it is.”
“Our situation is always the same, we try to level it somehow (with sales), the things we invest in the boys and in the players we sell, it’s kind of that it’s not going out of any kind of range and that worked so far, but I know, I heard it immediately.”
“I forgot that I said this but everybody reminded me and then I thought, ‘Oh, okay, yeah…’. I’ve said worse things in my life, to be honest, but that’s one of them.”
While it’s true that Klopp should be pulled up on his comments, there is also something to be said for him responding to questions with more than autofill answers. Many coaches shy away from giving their opinions and in that at least Klopp cannot be found wanting.
