Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp reaffirms that smart recruitment is the way forward

Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of the Leeds United game, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp reaffirms his stance that smart recruitment is the way forward for the club.

Liverpool have always been a shrewd operator in the transfer market under the German over the past few years. They have made budget signings and preferred to develop players here rather than buying the finished articles.

If we look at some of the examples, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino were not the finished articles when signed. But, Klopp developed them and made them into a forward line that was the best in Europe between 2018 and 2020.

Here’s what the German said about smart recruitment and changing the landscape of this team next season (h/t Sky Sports):

“We always try to be smart in our recruitment. I am 100 per cent sure that if you gave the power stick to a few people, then next season we’d bring in 20 new players.

“If you gave it to a few others, then we’d bring old players back when we were successful before and stuff like this. We are in charge, that’s what we decided on and let’s go from there.

“It’s an interesting period, very interesting and we always try to be smart in the transfer market, so it’s not completely new to us.”

Interestingly, the boss spoke about not giving the power stick to the people who would bring 20 new players in one window, or buy the old players.

It kind of shows that he wants to be in charge, just like any other time, of what is happening in the transfer market. The problem is that there is no sporting director appointed yet. Julian Ward is set to leave in the summer.

Are the club working on hiring a new director, or have they already made that decision and holding back on the announcement until the end of this season? We would never know.

After pulling out from signing their long-term transfer target Jude Bellingham due to cost issues, it became even more clear that Liverpool won’t spend crazily in transfer markets ever.

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• Liverpool icon Robbie Fowler on the club’s midfield situation
• Conor Gallagher determined to stay in London amidst Liverpool links
• Bayern Munich’s Sadio Mane wants Liverpool return

But, in the last two summers, the club hasn’t been very good at adding the right players to enhance the quality of the squad when they were at the top. The right things must be done from now on.