Dean Jones claimed that Jurgen Klopp “bought” the Premier League title in the latest episode of the B/R Football Ranks Podcast. Liverpool were recently crowned champions of England for the first time in 30 years, with their last triumph coming back in the 1989/90 season under Kenny Dalglish.
The Reds currently sit 23 points clear of Manchester City going into the fixture between the two this evening, which provides evidence of their dominance this season but in Jones’ view, people shouldn’t forget the vast amounts of money the Anfield club have spent during Klopp’s tenure.
Speaking on a recent edition of the B/R Football Ranks Podcast, he said: “Klopp has had time to build this team but he’s spent a lot of money to get where he is and I think that we shouldn’t forget that.
“Klopp’s spent £35m on [Alex] Oxlade-Chamberlain, £75m on [Virgil] Van Dijk, £52m on [Naby] Keita, £43m on Fabinho, £65m on his goalkeeper – Alisson [Becker]. In a sense, he has bought the league title with those players because three of them are key players.”
TIF Thoughts…
There is no getting away from the fact that the club spent a combined £132.44m on Virgil van Dijk and Alisson (as per Transfermarkt.co.uk), however, Jones failed to mention that Liverpool sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for £130.5m in order to fund those transfers which proved to be an excellent bit of business.
Do you think Dean Jones' comments are unfair?
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Alisson arrived on Merseyside in July 2018, a few months after Van Dijk joined the club and in their first full season together, the Reds accumulated an impressive 97 points but were desperately unlucky to miss out on the Premier League title by a solitary point – highlighting how much of an impact they had.
Jones mentioned a number of other players that Liverpool have spent a substantial amount of money on and rightly so, however, we believe that to say they’ve simply “bought the league title” doesn’t do the rebuilding job the German has overseen justice.