Manchester United are poised to make Paul Pogba the most expensive transfer signing of all time and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has recently had his say on the matter.
When Klopp was recently asked for his take on the imminent £100 million transfer of Paul Pogba from Juventus to Manchester United, the former Dortmund manager stated that he would prefer to focus on building a good group, rather than signing one huge player.
“If you bring one player in for £100 million or whatever and he gets injured then it all goes through the chimney,” Klopp said, according to the Liverpool Echo.
“The day that this is football, I’m not in a job any more, 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.”
Klopp added that he and the club were looking for players outside of the established big names.
“If you all swim in the same pool, the pool is too small – you all go for the same players,” he said.
“There are a lot of players outside that pool – good players on to the next step in their career. We try to find them.”
Liverpool have spent around £65 million on as many as six new players. Their biggest signing of the summer has been that of Sadio Mane from Southampton for a fee believed to be in the region of £34 million.
Apart from the Senegalese winger, the Reds’ other big signing has been that of Dutch midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum from recently relegated Newcastle United for a reported fee of £25 million. Klopp has also raided his former stomping grounds, the Bundesliga, to strengthen the defence, with a number of low-key signings. The Reds have brought in center-backs Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan from Schalke and Augsburg respectively and Mainz goalkeeper Loris Karius.
In comparison, Manchester United have spent a similar amount on defender Eric Bailly and midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan, with striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic joining them on a free transfer from PSG. Manager Jose Mourinho wants to make one more big signing this summer though, and the purchase of Paul Pogba would substantially raise the net amount spent by the club.
