Jurgen Klopp has aimed another dig at Chelsea’s spending this summer window, suggesting teams owned by ‘oligarchs’ are not concerned about the financial uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.
With Chelsea reportedly close to making yet another major signing in Rennes goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, their total spending figure could rise to £250 million.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has also sanctioned the signings of Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Thiago Silva, Malang Sarr, Ben Chilwell and Kai Havertz.
Meanwhile, Liverpool have only been able to sign a left-back Kostas Tsimikas so far for a fee of £11.75 million.
Klopp has constantly reiterated that their plans have been changed by the financial impact of the pandemic and previously made light of Chelsea’s spending.
The German has now taken another swipe at Frank Lampard’s side, suggesting clubs owned by ‘oligarchs’ and ‘countries’, such as Manchester City, are less worried about the implications of the pandemic.
‘We live in a world at the moment with a lot of uncertainty,’ Klopp told BBC Radio 5 Live. ‘For some clubs it seems to be less important how uncertain the future is – owned by countries, owned by oligarchs, that’s the truth.
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‘We’re a different kind of club. We got to the Champions League final two years ago, we won it last year, and became Premier League champions last season by being the club we are, by being led the way we are led.
‘We cannot just change it overnight and say, ‘So now we want to behave like Chelsea, now we want to behave like them’, now they’ve signed a lot of players.
‘That can be an advantage, of course, but that means they have to fit together pretty quickly as well. It’s not only about bringing quality in.
‘You cannot bring in the 11 best players in the world and just hope a week later they play the best football they ever will play.
‘It’s about working together on the training ground. That will probably be an advantage for us. We’ve worked quite a while with each other, but I know people don’t want to hear that.
‘But we did it last year, pretty much that way. For our reasons, club reasons, we always want to improve, we always want to improve the squad, but there are different ways.’
