Klopp urges Liverpool to keep pace with rivals’ spending

Jurgen Klopp has warned Liverpool’s owners that his struggling side must keep pace with their rivals’ spending in the summer transfer window.

Klopp’s side travel to Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday looking to bounce back from a chastening 5-2 defeat by Real Madrid in the Champions League last 16 first leg at Anfield.

Liverpool are languishing in eighth place in the Premier League and their hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League via a top four finish are hanging by a slender thread.

After nearly winning the quadruple last season, the Reds now look in need of a major overhaul and Klopp acknowledged they have work to do in the next transfer window.

However, the departure of sporting director Julian Ward this summer and the potential loss of Champions League revenue could hinder Klopp’s hopes of matching the likes of Chelsea, Newcastle, Manchester City and Manchester United in the race for new recruits.

“It’s not helpful (losing out on the Champions League). Money always has an impact. Of course it is influential but this is a summer where we have to be in the market, definitely,” Klopp said.

“I am sorry that we cannot guarantee the Champions League at this moment but it’s not done yet, we will fight for it, so we don’t have to talk about it as though it is not possible.”

He added: “My job is to make it 100 percent clear what we need from a sports point of view and then other people are responsible for giving us the resources or whatever. I have nothing to do with that.

“We built a stand and a training ground and the club is in a really good place but around us a few people are speeding up a little bit and you cannot ignore that.”

Earlier this week, Liverpool’s principal owner John W Henry confirmed the club had not been put up for sale by his Fenway Sports Group, who are looking for external investment.

Klopp hopes that means he will get backing in the transfer market.

“I am optimistic when he is optimistic because it is his business. I am not involved in the search for investors,” added Klopp.

“I always have the same say. I cannot decide, at all, about money. Not about one penny. It is always the same.”