Sour grapes or do they have a point?
Manchester United are spending big again. They’ve gone big on their manager and they’re looking like they’re about to break the world record transfer fee for Paul Pogba.
Even if no-one really knows.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s £80m price tag was one thing but after breaking every record there was to break and scoring more times than he has played for Real Madrid, it was justified.
Adding to that price for anyone other than Ronaldo or Messi would seem absurd, never mind for a midfielder but Manchester United have gone all out for Paul Pogba – the teenager they offloaded only a few years ago.
It’s not the Liverpool manager’s style anyway.
Klopp said during Liverpool pre-season tour:
“If you bring one player in for £100 million or whatever and he gets injured then it all goes through the chimney.
“The day that this is football, I’m not in a job any more, because the game is about playing together.
“Other clubs can go out and spend more money and collect top players, yes. Do I have to do it differently to that? Actually, I want to do it differently. I would even do it differently if I could spend that money.
“If I spend money it is because I am trying to build a real team.
“You can win championships, you can win titles. But maybe there is a manner in which you want it.”
He's truly unique https://t.co/RduvhzQoWN
— JOE (@JOE_co_uk) August 1, 2016
And Arsene Wenger has been quick to echo those sentiments.
Quoted in Tuttosport, the Arsenal boss, who is linked with a big-money swoop for Riyad Mahrez, gave his stunned take on the transfer fee.
He said:
“It’s complete madness when measured against real life,” he said. “But we live in a world in which everything that happens is geared towards moving money around.
“It’s complete madness but it seems that if you can afford to do it, you can justify it. Football has become a global competition and that is why clubs are chucking these kinds of sums around.
“Does it make sense because the player can deliver a return on that investment? I don’t think anyone can make that call.
“Since I’ve been in the game I’ve always thought there would be a limit to how much clubs could spend on a player but it looks like I’ve been proved wrong.
“Maybe in a few years’ time we’ll be talking about fees of 200 or 300 million.”
There has been plenty of Pogba news over the weekend, though still nothing close to official confirmation of negotiations from Manchester United themselves. We got Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s take on the potential deal, United skipper Wayne Rooney’s thoughts, and while all that has been going on, the man himself has been working on his best Stormzy impression.
