Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool have ‘agreed’ a deal with Brighton ahead of a potential Premier League record £111 million deal for Moises Caicedo while admitting he was ‘wrong’ to question such mega-money transfers
When Liverpool were struggling to agree a £50 million fee for Southampton for Romeo Lavia – failing with three bids as they edged closer and closer without ever meeting the Saints’ asking price – few would have imagined that Klopp would end up breaking the Premier League’s all-time transfer record just 24 hours later.
The Merseyside giants agreed a staggering £111 million fee with Brighton for Moises Caicedo on Thursday night (BBC).
Hi-jacking Chelsea’s summer-long pursuit of the all-action Ecuadorian, Sunday’s clash between the Blues and the Reds on Sunday afternoon suddenly takes on an all-new dimension.
“The fee with the club is agreed,” Klopp tells the Liverpool Echo at his pre-match press conference. “We will see what that means. We aren’t a club with endless resources, and we didn’t expect a couple of things to happen this summer.
“Then, it happened.”
Liverpool agree record Moises Caicedo deal with Brighton
Those of you with long memories may remember that Klopp, back in 2016, was particularly disparaging about Manchester United paying a near-nine-figure sum for Paul Pogba, insisting that he would look to do things differently.
“If you bring one player in for £100m and he gets injured, then it all goes up the chimney. The day that this is football, I’m not in a job anymore, because the game is about playing together,” Klopp said, via the Daily Mail.
“Other clubs can go out and spend more money and collect top players. I want to do it differently. I would even do it differently if I could spend that money.”
In his defence, the former Borussia Dortmund boss could not have imagined how dramatically the football landscape would shift in the preceding seven years. Caicedo will, after all, become the Premier League’s third £100 million signing of 2023 alone, following in the footsteps of Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez and Arsenal’s Declan Rice.
“Everything changed,” he now admits. “Do I like it? No. Did I realise I was wrong? Yes. That’s the way it goes. Saudi Arabia will not help with that.
“In the end, we have to try and make sure we get the best possible team together. 50 per cent will like it and 50 per cent won’t. We are trying to bring together the best squad for us. We cannot just point at players and bring them in, there is a lot of work to do.
“Sometimes, one door closes and another opens up. If people want to throw my quotes from five years ago, no problem. I realise I was wrong.”
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