Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has today revealed that he has the final say on incoming and outgoing transfers at the club.
The club have been recently linked with a host of names, and recently Shane Long was rumoured to be on his way to Anfield.
However, speaking at his press conference ahead of Liverpool’s FA Cup third round replay with Exeter, the flamboyant manager was asked whether he had the final say on transfer dealings.
He exclaimed: “Yes. But does anybody have the final say?
“For example, say I wanted to take Zlatan Ibrahimovic and we have to pay £100m plus a big contract at 35, I think I would have to ask first!
“Sometimes my staff and I have an idea about a player, then we collect information and then we have players our scouts bring in and we speak about it.
“If I don’t want a player to come here then he will not come. If a player I want doesn’t fit our budget then he will not come to. It’s a normal situation.”
However he did stress that Liverpool’s transfer dealings were done as a collective, rather than by himself.
Klopp elaborated: “Sometimes my staff and I have an idea about a player, then we collect information and then we have players our scouts bring in and we speak about it.
“If I don’t want a player to come here then he will not come.
“If a player I want doesn’t fit our budget then he will not come to.
“It’s a normal situation.”
This differs to former manger Brendan Rodgers, who said on Sky Sports that he did not have “sole final say” on transfers citing that he did not want to sign Mario Balotelli.
Brendan Rodgers said that he was not responsible for signing Mario Balotelli
Rodgers explained the transfer process during his time at Liverpool:
“The ownership group want to bring in young players, look to see them develop and move on. A lot of the players who came in were 24 or below.
“Transfers were a group decision; it was certainly not something where I would have the sole final say. It’s difficult because you want a player in but if the player is not on the list, you’d have to take someone.”
On the Balotelli transfer he said: “After the AC Milan game, I was asked the question and I felt Mario wasn’t someone who suited the profile of what we were after.
“Mario has big talent. I wasn’t thinking I’d be any different in terms of managers who’ve had issues with him but, at that moment, we didn’t really have another option. Come the end of the summer we were struggling to get in the type of player we wanted and the ownership thought this was a player I could develop.
“It didn’t quite work for us and it cost us.”
