Jurgen Klopp has claimed had Cody Gakpo been playing in La Liga rather than the Eredivisie then he would’ve been ‘unaffordable’ for Liverpool and has discussed the potential for more signings being made in January.
The 23-year-old was announced as a Liverpool player last night after completing an initial £37m move from PSV and could be available for the trip to Brentford on January 2.
The signing of the forward may have came as a surprise to many when you consider that the former Borussia Dortmund manager’s priority is to strengthen his midfield – the German tactician has therefore discussed whether the Reds’ future transfer activity has now been affected by Gakpo’s arrival.
“I would say in principle it’s like this for all people in the world: the money you spend has an impact on the money you can spend (in the future),” Klopp said (as quoted by the Irish Examiner). “It’s not that it increases it. It has nothing to do with each other.
“We know what we want to do and we will see if we can do it. It’s about money, of course, but it’s more about how it always was – about the right players as we are really happy that we could get Cody.
“He is a young player with a lot of potential. If he would have already been scoring 40 goals in Spain or whatever he would be unaffordable.
“These kind of things, it’s all about timing. Getting these boys at the right moment that they didn’t already score 55 goals per season and stuff like this.
“That’s why we were really convinced. He could always make the next step – and that makes it interesting.
“We believe in our process. When players come here – especially offensive players – they have all made a step forward because of the way we work and the way we can help them. That makes it massively interesting.”
With us spending £37m on Gakpo (a deal that could rise to £50m with add-ons), it would be somewhat surprising if were to splash the cash again on a midfielder next month, especially when you consider that we intend to go all out for the signing of Jude Bellingham at the end of the season.
By the time the summers comes around, the England international may be out of our price range but that is something that we’ll just have to weigh up at the time.
Argentina’s Enzo Fernandez and Morocco’s Sofyan Amrabat have also been linked with a move to Anfield following their impressive showings at the World Cup and the latter would certainly be the cheaper option.
Journalist David Lynch ruled out a move for the Benfica midfielder recently while Brighton’s Alexis Mac Allister, also a World Cup winner in Qatar, is believed to be of interest to Klopp and may be available for €40m.
We look set to have a busy couple of transfer windows ahead of us and if we don’t sign a midfielder this month, eyebrows will certainly be raised.