Jurgen Klopp admits he was wrong when he said he was not interested in signings worth 100 million pounds ($127 million) as Liverpool try to secure the arrival of Moises Caicedo in a British record transfer.
Liverpool must now try to persuade the Ecuadorean international to join the club after they outbid Chelsea to agree a £111m deal with Brighton & Hove Albion.
Back in the summer of 2016, Klopp said spending that much money on one player was the wrong approach as he vowed: “The day this is football, I’m no longer in a job.”
However, given the changing landscape of the transfer market and the financial strength of their rivals, Klopp admits he has changed his mind in order to try and keep up.
“Everything has changed. Do I like it? No. Did I realize I was wrong? Yes, absolutely. That’s the way it goes,” said Klopp.
“It’s not going to go in the opposite direction again. Saudi Arabia is definitely not going to help with that. I don’t blame anyone, but it’s not going to help. Another market with a lot of money.
“In the end, we as a club just have to try to make sure that with our resources we get the best possible team together. We all know in football that 50 percent would like it and 50 percent would say ‘but I would have done this or that’.”
“Trust me, we really try everything to get our best team together. That’s the point. We’re not in Dreamland. It’s not that we can just point and bring players. There’s a lot of work to do these things. Sometimes one door closes and the other opens.
“If people wanted to throw my quotes at me from five or six years ago, no problem at all. Back in the day that was what I thought. Now I realize I was wrong. It’s easy to admit.”
Go deeper
‘He’s Made for the Big Clubs’: The Rise and Rise of Moises Caicedo
Klopp confirmed that Liverpool had agreed a fee with Brighton, but it would not be disputed whether Caicedo had a medical on Friday.
The club recently secured around £52m from the sales of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho to Saudi Arabia, allowing them to move to Caicedo when Chelsea’s pursuit faltered. Liverpool have previously been thwarted in their attempts to agree a deal with Southampton for Romeo Lavia.
“What’s changed? We’re not a club with endless resources but there are a couple of things we didn’t expect to happen in the summer with Hendo and Fab. The club has really expanded it to be honest,” added Klopp.
“The German proverb is ‘Don’t praise the evening before the day.’ Let’s see what happens and we’ll go from there.”
(Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
“Typical food guru. Problem solver. Devoted beer practitioner. Professional reader. Baconaholic.”