Somehow, we knew this was coming…
Jürgen Klopp finally has his man. Or at least he will do when the January transfer window opens.
After a high-profile pursuit of Southampton’s Virgil Van Dijk in the summer, Liverpool confirmed earlier in the week that a deal had been agreed for the player – the £75m fee making the Dutchman the most expensive defender in football history.
As news of Van Dijk’s move did the rounds, plenty of Manchester United supporters were quick to point to comments made by Klopp following the Old Trafford club’s £89m signing of Paul Pogba in 2016.
“Other clubs can go out and spend more money and collect top players, yes,” Klopp had said at the time. “But if you bring one player in for £100m or whatever, and he gets injured, then it all goes through the chimney.
“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. The day that this is football, I’m not in a job any more.”
United supporters weren’t the only ones eager to remind Klopp of his comments, with Jose Mourinho also touching on this during his press conference on Friday afternoon.
Mourinho had been attempting to clarify remarks he had made following his side’s 2-2 draw with Burnley on Boxing Day. He had appeared to suggest the money invested in the United squad had not been enough when compared with Manchester City buying full-backs for the kind of money one might expect to see a big club pay for a striker.
“Did I say that?” he asked. “I think the one that speaks about it in a specific way has to be Jürgen. If I was one of you [reporters] I would ask him about his comments about one year ago.”
Mourinho later went on to add that he did not blame Liverpool for paying such a fee for Van Dijk, explaining that this was simply the way in which the transfer marker was now.
