Liverpool and Man City spending debunked after Jurgen Klopp money quip at Pep Guardiola

Liverpool: Klopp makes dig at Man City after losing title

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Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp couldn’t help but mention Manchester City’s transfer spending when he congratulated Pep Guardiola’s side on their Premier League title success. Here, Express Sport looks at the respective transfer window spending by both managers.

City were confirmed as champions for the third time in four seasons after Leicester City beat second-placed Manchester United on Tuesday night.

Klopp is of course the only manager to have broken City’s stranglehold on the Premier League trophy during that period, having led Liverpool to their title rampage season.

After his Reds side were finally deposed as champions this week, Klopp said Guardiola’s side had created “something special” – but dropped a heavy hint that the vast sums spent at the Etihad had played a huge part.

“When you bring together financial resources and football knowledge then you have a good chance to create something special, and that’s obviously the case,” said the Anfield boss.

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Of course, both managers have made big-money signings which have transformed their teams.

Ruben Dias has played a huge part in City’s success since his £61m arrival from Benfica last summer – having had a similar impact on Guardiola’s defence to that made by Liverpool’s record signing Virgil van Dijk, who Klopp signed for £76m in 2017.

But it is no surprise that Guardiola has spent by far the greater amount of the two managers, with Klopp also having a much better net spend due to Liverpool’s more prudent model of selling players in order to finance new arrivals.

Since Guardiola took charge at the Etihad in 2016, City have spent £666m on new players, compared to £393m spent at Liverpool under Klopp since 2015, according to stats published by Transfer League.

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The stats show that City have sold players for a total of £243m during Guardiola’s reign, giving the manage a net spend of £432m.

Liverpool, by contrast, have made £324m from selling players – making for a net spend of just under £70m.

So the Reds come out well on top in that respect – while a look at the biggest signings made by each manager shows they are fairly close in their success rates.

Liverpool’s record signing Van Dijk has been arguably Klopp’s best signing, having been a colossus in defence during the Reds’ run to Champions League and Premier League glory in successive seasons.

Guardiola inherited City’s record signing, £68m star Kevin de Bruyne, while his own biggest buy is Dias, who as mentioned above had a big role to play in helping City reclaim the crown.

Klopp’s next biggest signings are Alisson (£56m), Naby Keita (£54m), Fabinho (£40m), Diogo Jota (£40m), Mohamed Salah (£37m) and Sadio Mane (£37m).

Four of those six have been unqualified successes, while Jota made a blistering start to life at Liverpool before injury struck. Keita, meanwhile, is arguably yet to justify on a regular basis such a huge transfer outlay.

Over at City, Guardiola’s next biggest buys have been Riyad Mahrez (£61m), Aymeric Laporte (£58m), Joao Cancelo (£58m), Rodri (£56m), Benjamin Mendy (£51m) and John Stones (£50m).

Questions were asked of most of those players last term, but this season Mahrez, Cancelo, Rodri and Stones have really delivered. Laporte was crucial to City’s 2018/19 title triumph and has played a vital role this season despite often being kept out of the side by Stones’ revitalised form.

Of those players, Mendy has been the biggest disappointment, with the 26-year-old behind £1.8m bargain buy Oleksandr Zinchenko and right-footer Cancelo in the left-back pecking order.

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