Jurgen Klopp admits he has no idea whether Jude Bellingham’s impressive World Cup has priced the “exceptional” midfielder out of a move to Liverpool. Klopp, though, has sidestepped talk of Liverpool now not being able to afford Bellingham and instead chose to praise the youngster’s maturity and ability to improve even further.
Jurgen Klopp said: “I don’t like to talk about money when you talk about a player like him. Everyone can see he is just exceptional. If you mention to someone who has no clue about football or who knows about football and has not watched it for a while ‘how old do you think Jude Bellingham is?’, I don’t think anyone would get even close to his age. They would say 28 or 29 because he plays so mature. He played an exceptional World Cup. Absolutely exceptional. With all the things he has and things he can improve, to describe him I would say the things he can do are difficult to learn, and the things he can improve are easy to learn. So, yes, he is a really good player. What can I say? I have thought that already for two or three years since he had his breakthrough at Dortmund. Everybody knew already but I have no idea what that means for the money side of it. I really think if we all want to do him a favour then we do not talk too much about money. I mean that from an England point of view. Do not throw any hurdles in his development.”
Liverpool resume their Premier League campaign at Aston Villa on Boxing Day having ended the first part of the campaign seven points adrift of the top four after 14 games, albeit with a match in hand. The Reds have qualified for the Champions League through league position in each of the last six seasons and have gone on to reach three finals, the most recent in May when they were beaten 1-0 by Real Madrid. And while accepting the importance of a top-four finish, Klopp doesn’t believe it should prove decisive in attracting players in forthcoming transfer windows.
Jurgen Klopp said: “It is very important for the club and that is our main target now,” said the Liverpool boss. “I am surprised that today you don’t ask me, ‘can you be champions?’. But 15 or whatever points behind, how can you ask this question? Top four is important but you ask it from a transfer perspective? Yes. Again, generally we have a good chance to qualify for the Champions League. Will it happen this year? I don’t know. But 100% we are one of the contenders for the next few years again. That is how it is. If you ask a player and he says, ‘next year you are not in the Champions League and I would prefer to go to a football club who plays this year and maybe not next year’ then I am not sure I would still want this player, to be honest. I understand it 100% – I want to be in the Champions League all the time. For the moment we have two pathways still to qualify for the Champions League next year. As long as that is the case, I see ourselves as proper contenders for the Champions League qualification. If not, then we can speak about that.”
