Antonio Conte. Jose Mourinho. Pep Guardiola. Jurgen Klopp. And maybe Arsene Wenger.
This coming season, the Barclays Premier League is filled with world class managers who will have massive war chests at their disposal to sign big names, as they regularly do with the clubs they have formerly worked for. Jurgen Klopp would also have the same backing from the Liverpool owners after witnessing significant progress when he took over, appearing in two cup finals. But would he actually use it?
Klopp has been famous for taking talented players and letting them grow to fulfill their potential. Mats Hummels, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Marco Reus, Robert Lewandowski, who are now the biggest names in football have gone through Jurgen Klopp.
The manager’s first three signings imply that he might not. A combined 9.8 million pounds has been spent so far under his regime, acquiring Marko Grujic, Joel Matip, and Loris Karius, who have already established a reputation for being big talents.
Then again, that doesn’t mean he isn’t willing to splash the cash. In January, we were expected to sign Alex Teixeira, and offered Shakhtar Donetsk somewhere around thirty million pounds to acquire the Brazilian’s services. But the Ukrainian outfit wouldn’t budge for anything less than 38 million, Klopp basically said to forget about it.
In the words of Nina Kauser, it was refreshing to see that Liverpool will not be held ransom in the transfer window any longer, as we were when we signed Christian Benteke, Andy Carroll, Dejan Lovren, and Adam Lallana.
But money has never really been an issue for Liverpool Football Club. In the summer of 2014, former manager Brendan Rodgers attempted to pry Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona, fighting head to head with Arsenal for his signature. We offered more money to Barcelona AND more money for his wages, but in the end he signed for Arsenal because of his desire to live in London.
Today, Liverpool’s new transfer saga is Mario Gotze. A man who much like a 6 year old boy in a mall throwing a fit when he wants to stay and play in the arcade, while his mum has made it clear that it isn’t happening.
I highly doubt this drama will end anytime soon, and believe that Mario Gotze will end up elsewhere, be it Borussia Dortmund or in Liverpool, but it reiterates that ‘The Normal One’ isn’t afraid to make it rain, as LFC are offering him a whopping 175,000 a week in wages.
As much as I don’t like to compare football clubs, just have a look at Leicester this previous season. Champions of England, and their key players coming from lower leagues who are now an essential part of the their football club’s spine.
N’Golo Kante (SM Caen, relegated thrice in ten years)
Jamie Vardy (Stoksbridge Park Steels, FC Halifax, Fleetwood Town)
Riyaad Mahrez (Le Havre)
They had hunger and belief as the season progressed, and the were rewarded for it. Teams who are filled with star-studded players like Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal couldn’t compete against it.
So can Liverpool win the league with talent against teams looking at bringing in the likes of Pogba, Benzema, and Gundogan?
The answer is yes if you’re optimistic, no if you’re a pessimist, and for the realists, after seeing how fast the players progressed under Jurgen in seven months, you must be as positive as I am. After all, Jurgen Klopp has already instilled a brand new mentality in our players, bringing in players who have the same mentality and hunger, and more importantly, he has given Liverpool Football Club an identity, something that we have lost since the Benitez era.
Obviously you need both rising talent and proven talent. For every Ojo you need a HiguaÃn for example.
The youngsters need top players around them to guide them and inspire them. we have no world class players at the minute but plenty of potential.
We need world class talent especially now with Wenger spending for a change, Ranieri proving his quality then we have Mourinho returning with bags of cash to spend then there are the new men to the prem, winner Guardiola at big spending City and the strict but very good Conte at money bags Chelsea.
Klopp has to use what money is available and the best of our young talent to their maximum to challenge.
As for Leicester that was a one off. The big boys have changed their managers and will spend big . the likes of Leicester can dream for another 20 years.
Liverpool fans should wake up and face reality…Liverpool, transfer committee and moneyball are all rolled into one word: Failure…A project of purely potential that’s doomed to fail…A balance of potential and class that’s never going to happen at our beloved Liverpool FC…A club that’s living on its past glories…A selling club that has its talents raided year after year due to lack of ambitions…A lucky club that has one of the best managers in the world right now…But failed to provide him with the right support and structure to deliver the trophies…A sad story of a club and its fortunes going downhill despite having one of the best fan bases globally…And that is Liverpool FC…A club lost in its direction in search of money and not glories…A disappointed fan of Liverpool FC here i am…But with a heart still tightly knitted to the club i’ve supported…Because of the club’s teachings…”You’ll never walk alone”…
I think there are a couple things one needs to look at here, first, Klopp has the confidence in himself and in his ability to develop talent. One see’s a lot of coaches become comfortable and become managers once they get to a big club. I think something that is overlooked by everyone is that you don’t need to pay premium for goalies, defenders and midfielders, although argument could be made for ball playing CB’s. Klopp understands that. Only goal scorers deserve premium price and he was willing to pay for it and will do so in the future. Games are won in the midfield, it’s an area we been lacking in since days of Alonso and Mascherano, and Klopp is taking a sledge hammer to that area. I actually think Klopp coming middle of the year and deep cup tournaments been blessing in disguise, Liverpool has a bloated club and bloated academy, and with injuries, Klopp got to truly asses what he has and the reject bin will be full this summer. I believe Klopp will mold Liverpool in the image of German national team, big, strong, physically imposing side that will push people around, but also technically sound and just enough of flair to score some goals.