Mauricio Pochettino aims thinly-veiled dig at Jurgen Klopp amid Moises Caicedo fallout
Chelsea beat Liverpool to the signing of Moises Caicedo and Mauricio Pochettino has now poked fun at his Reds counterpart Jurgen Klopp over previous spending comments
Mauricio Pochettino was speaking at a press conference on Thursday
Mauricio Pochettino has poked fun at his Liverpool counterpart Jurgen Klopp after Chelsea beat the Reds to the signing of Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo.
The Blues agreed on a British record transfer deal worth £115million - which includes £15m in add-ons – for the Ecuadorian international. The Chelsea deal, concluded this month, followed days of high drama as Liverpool had a British record transfer fee of £111million accepted by the Seagulls for the 21-year-old.
The signing of Caicedo took Chelsea’s summer transfer spending past the £300million mark following the arrivals of Christopher Nkunku, Nicolas Jackson, Axel Disasi, Lesley Ugochukwu, Robert Sanchez, and Angelo – while they later beat the Reds again to the signing of midfielder Romeo Lavia from Southampton.
Much has been made of the spending in transfer fees by the Blues under owner Todd Boehly, but Pochettino referenced old comments from Klopp – dating back to 2016 – when the Reds boss suggested he would leave football if his team ever spent £100m on one player.
The Blues boss spoke of the Klopp quote when describing his feelings on Romelu Lukaku’s situation at Chelsea changing - with the £97.5million signing facing an uncertain future, yet he may be integrated back into the Stamford Bridge fold if the club cannot find a buyer.
Pochettino told his press conference on Thursday ahead of his side’s Premier League clash against Luton: “I saw Klopp said I will not be in the business [of football if they spend £100m] and then they offered £100m and he says, oh I made a mistake, and something changed.”
The comment that Pochettino was referring to was when Klopp was analysing Manchester United’s (£89million) signing of Paul Pogba seven years ago. Of course, the football transfer market has inflated since then with Premier League clubs having more spending power than ever.
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The signing of Moises Caicedo broke the British club transfer record (
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“The day that this is football (buying a player for £100m), I’m not in a job anymore, because the game is about playing together,” Klopp said back in 2016. “That is how everybody in football understands it. You always want to have the best, but building the group is necessary to be successful.”
Since the new Chelsea ownership took control of the club last summer, over £800million has been spent on transfer fees. Enzo Fernandez is the current British transfer record while Wesley Fofana, Mykhaylo Mudryk, Marc Cucurella, and Raheem Sterling were other high-profile signings.
Liverpool have not been shy on spending themselves, albeit not on the same scale as their Premier League rivals. The club have splashed in the region of £115m on new arrivals Alexis MacAllister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Wataru Endo – but those have been the only incomings at Anfield this summer.
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