Jurgen Klopp named three players he would have brought to Liverpool if the Premier League club had ‘unlimited money’. Speaking at an event in June 2024 after his time with the Reds came to an end, the German picked out a trio of world-class stars that Liverpool could’ve gone for with a heftier budget.
While the Merseysiders are one of the richest clubs in the country and have spent huge sums of cash on transfers – such as the arrivals of Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk and Darwin Nunez – they have not often competed with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City in terms of net spend.
Fenway Sports Group (FSG) have run a self-sustaining model in their eyes since taking over the club in 2010. Since 2020, Liverpool have just the sixth highest net spend of Premier League clubs. Players often need to be moved on for big money before the club spend big on transfer targets.
This is the model they followed in 2018 when Klopp assembled his first successful squad on Merseyside. Philippe Coutinho was shipped off to Barcelona for well over £100 million in the January transfer window, and this allowed the Reds to swoop for Van Dijk and Alisson within the next six months.
Klopp was often vocal in his support for the way his club did things, but also at times conceded that it is extremely difficult to compete with the other mega powers in world football without the same unconditional financial power.
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During a ‘Thank You Jurgen’ tribute night at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, the former Borussia Dortmund boss reeled off the three names who he would have brought to Anfield if money wasn’t an issue. He told the crowd on the night (per The Sun):
“Can you imagine LFC as the club with unlimited money?
“Imagine Kylian Mbappe, came here. Imagine [Jude] Bellingham came here, Erling Haaland.”
While he admitted it would be incredible to see those world-class names added to his already talented Liverpool side, Klopp admitted: “It is not us, it just does not fit. We won what we won and we did it the Liverpool way.”
When the likes of now-Real Madrid duo Bellingham and Mbappe were set to leave their former clubs, Klopp claimed he and those he worked with had to make the difficult decision to go in a different direction. He added: “We had hard conversations and other clubs didn’t do that at the same time.”
It would have been massively interesting to see how the Reds would be getting on with the ludicrous talent Klopp named on his dream transfer wishlist. Arne Slot’s men aren’t doing too badly with the alternative signings they made – having lifted the Premier League title in the Dutchman’s debut campaign at Anfield.