Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has questioned Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp’s 2016 threat to quit rather than spend inflated transfer fees. The Anfield club are to sign Virgil van Dijk from Southampton in a £75m deal on 1 January for a fee which is a world record for a defender. Klopp criticised some of the huge fees lavished by Premier League clubs following Manchester United’s then world record £89 million move for France midfielder Paul Pogba last year.
The Liverpool manager claimed he “would even do it differently if I could spend that money” and suggested he would walk away from football if such sums became the norm. But Klopp has now joined the growing group of managers prepared to spend enormous fees on players after obliterating the previous world record fee for a defender – Manchester City’s £52 million capture of Benjamin Mendy – in order to entice Van Dijk from Southampton. And Mourinho has now suggested Klopp should have a look at himself. “I think the ones that speak about it in a specific way has to be Jurgen. And if I was one of you I would ask him about his comments about one year ago. “But not speaking specifically about that case, because in Liverpool they do what they want to do, and I am nobody to comment on what they do.
“The reality is that if they think that the player is the right player for them and they really want the player they pay his amount or they don’t have the player because that is the way the market is at that time. “So when we compare now the amount of money certain managers and clubs spend, to try to compare that, I am not saying even 10 years ago, but even three years ago, is to compare the impossible. You cannot compare the realities. “Van Dijk is the most expensive defender in history of football. Was he better than Paolo Maldini, Giuseppe Bergomi or Rio Ferdinand?
“You cannot say that, it’s just the way the market is, and you pay or you don’t pay. If you pay, obviously you pay a crazy amount of money, but if you don’t, you don’t have the player. “It’s as simple as that, so no critics at all about what Liverpool did, it’s just the way it is.” Klopp had been extremely vocal over the exorbitant fees spent by rivals last year. “Other clubs can go out and spend more money and collect top players, yes,” he said at the time. “But if you bring one player in for £100million 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.
“I want a special team spirit – I don’t feel it is necessary, I want it. You can’t say at the end, ‘Only 11 best players will play together and let’s see what happens.’ The day that this is football, I’m not in a job anymore. Because the game is about playing together. “That is why somebody invented passes — so these players can play together. It’s not about running with the ball because you can do it all the time. “But building the group is not my unique idea, it is necessary to be successful in football.”
