Jurgen Klopp has bluntly called out the influence of oil money on football, by insisting that “no one can match with Manchester City’s wealth
The Liverpool boss is tasked with doing just that on Sunday, when a Liverpool side who have run the UAE-owned club the closest over the past five years, must find a way to stop City and their star striker Erling Haaland.
Klopp though, when asked how he will do it, insisted that people will not appreciate his answer…because he believes it is an unfair contest.
“You will not like the answer, and you all have the answer already. Nobody can compete with City,” he said.
“You have the best team in the world and you put in the best striker on the market, no matter what it costs, you just do it. I know City will not like it, nobody will like it. You’ve asked the question but you know the answer.”
Klopp made a point that three clubs – City, Qatari-owned PSG and Newcastle, who are owned by the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia – have the backing of a nation’s wealth which allows them splash the cash in the market however they like.
He added: “What does Liverpool do? We cannot act like them. It is not possible. Not possible. It is just clear and again you know the answer. There are three clubs in world football who can do what they want financially. It’s legal and everything, fine, but they can do what they want. They will say ‘yeah but we have…’ but it’s exactly the fact.
“I heard now that at Newcastle somebody (sporting director Dan Ashworth) said ‘there is no ceiling for this club’. Yes! He is right. He is absolutely right. There is no ceiling for Newcastle. Congratulations, but other clubs have ceilings.”
Klopp has injury worries ahead of the visit of City, with the German coach admitting he must wait until Saturday to see who is fit to face the champions.
Speaking on how much he is looking forward to facing Pep Guardiola and City in general and even though this fixture might not exactly be title-defining like other seasons, Klopp added: “Very much, very much. It’s not that I don’t enjoy playing other games, but this is just a different challenge because they are good everywhere, so that’s how it is. There are no weak points where you say, ‘OK, we can do that and they might struggle here or here.’ There’s not a lot, to be honest, but that’s why they are the team they are. No, it’s a job to do, that’s what we do. Yes, we know obviously we have a couple of good results against them – not enough for winning the title more often – but most of the games we were really in the game and that was always very important.”
