Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp disagrees with suggestions he wasn't given enough backing by the club's owners Fenway Sports Group.
Klopp is set to leave Liverpool this summer after nearly nine years in charge. The former Borussia Dortmund boss led his team to their first league title in 30 years in the 2019-20 season, as well as a Champions League victory in 2019 and two other runs to the final, but some fans expressed concern with the lack of financial backing given to the Reds in that time.
Liverpool have spent big on a number of occasions, but splurges have often been funded by incoming fees. Virgil van Dijk's £80m move from Southampton came after Barcelona paid the Reds a nine-figure sum for Philippe Coutinho, while the sale of Fabinho last summer helped balance the books and facilitate several new midfield signings.
Speaking to reporters ahead of his final match at the helm, Klopp appeared to empathise with those concerned about transfer outlay. However, he made clear he didn't feel he wasn't given the backing he needed.
"I think you could buy into it but (people say) 'they didn't back him enough' and stuff like that but I never saw it that way," the 56-year-old said. "I don't know if they could have done more but I don't think so because we had these discussions and I never had them in public.
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"I didn't want to bring this feeling to the outside world that we are not united. If we had an argument it was internal and on the outside we say it's our way and that is how we do it. I don't know any other way.
"If it would help to invite the public into the discussions I would try but it doesn't help. If my son asked me for 50 euros and I only had 25 to give, what can I do? Besides just give him the 25. I really thought for us that I understood that it was our way, the Liverpool way."
Did Jurgen Klopp get enough backing at Liverpool? Have your say in the comments section
Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has been full of praise for Jurgen Klopp (Javier Garcia/REX/Shutterstock)
After reflecting on those internal discussions, he reiterated that Liverpool "do things properly" and there was never a tendency to overspend. "This is a healthy club and to do that on our level... you could argue Barcelona is not healthy but they are still up there but I couldn't see this being a Liverpool thing. I just don't see that," he continued.
"Or other clubs with massive money, they try things, we need to do it this way because that is what the people believe in, historically. They are [political] lefties, rather educated by Bill Shankly. Most of us don't know him of course but it is always around so you cannot just change this now. The younger faction might be like that just 'who cares?'
"But the older people from 30-upwards understand it like that and we always did that. And the way we did it, we were unlucky in moments and maybe not good enough in moments to win three Premier Leagues and three Champions Leagues."
Klopp's comments come after chairman Tom Werner praised the way the German has made a wider impact on the club. “He enthused the club with a competitive spirit that’s really quite unmatched,” Werner told The Athletic.
“There’s something in his philosophy of life that bled into the storyline of Liverpool over the past nine years. Here is a man who is not even born in the UK, yet he’s become the Scouser we all love and admire.”
Werner also reflected on how he and the other higher-ups at the club immediately knew they had the right man after a 2015 meeting. “After that first meeting, we turned to each other and said: ‘Forget his tactical strategy, he’s absolutely the right person for this club’," he said. "We had interviewed other coaches but he was just extraordinarily charismatic."
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