Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has spat the dummy regarding the financial power of Man City – just days after his financially superior side blew away Rangers at Ibrox.
The outspoken German manager can be a likeable presence at times but more recently the ex-Dortmund boss has shown a propensity for moaning out loud in the media.
Be it the fixture list or the finances of the English Premier League champions, public perception has shifted a little away from the Anfield gaffer whose entitlement as of late has bordered on embarrassing.
How Rangers would love the finances that Liverpool have access to, last season’s beaten Champions League finalists steamrolling the Gers 7-1 at Ibrox during the week.
And yet – clearly quite comfortable with this given his team has the advantage – Jurgen Klopp bemoaned Arab money in English football and claimed that no club can compete with Pep Guardiola’s side ahead of their Premier League clash this weekend.
Ok mate, but if that’s the case then why is your team 11th?
Jurgen Klopp takes aim at Man City money despite Rangers contrast
Remarkably, the German manager also complained that Man City signed Erling Haaland this summer, despite the fact Liverpool actually paid a higher transfer fee to sign Darwin Nunez.
Jurgen Klopp also took aim at Newcastle United and – presumably – PSG with the former Mainz boss believing they have free reign despite Financial FairPlay rules.
“Oh, you won’t like the answer. You will not like the answer, and you all have the answer already. Nobody can compete with City in that,” said Jurgen Klopp [Guardian].
“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. 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. We have to look at it [and say]: ‘We need that and we need that and we have to look here and make it younger, and here a prospect and here a talent’ and that is what you have to do. And you compete with them.
“It is not a problem at all for me, it’s like it is. Don’t ask me that question because you always open this discussion and it’s me telling you.
“But you all know it, you should know. 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 some other clubs have ceilings.”
Fair enough Jurgen Klopp, it’s not like Liverpool have signed deals worth up to £85m on Darwin Nunez, £50m on Luis Diaz or £36m on Ibrahima Konate in the last 12 months.
Rangers have barely spent a penny in transfer fees on a midfielder since they signed Maurice Edu for £2.7m in 2008!
To put this into perspective, this is a manager complaining that he can only spend enough to buy the entire Rangers team several times over and potentially even the entire club every single transfer window.
Yes Liverpool want to be at the top table competing for trophies every year, but consider how arrogant all of this sounds to Scottish clubs such as Rangers or those competing in leagues outside of England.
Meanwhile, the scale of Rangers’ Champions League qualification achievement has been highlighted by the form of a pair of Euro rivals.
