Man Utd news: Jose Mourinho snipes back at Jurgen Klopp over Virgil van Dijk’s £75m fee
Liverpool manager said he would give up football if he ever had to spend money like the £89m Paul Pogba cost the Red Devils
JOSE MOURINHO has hit out at Jurgen Klopp saying the Liverpool boss has been forced to eat his words.
Klopp said he would give up on football if he ever had to spend like Manchester United did on £89million Paul Pogba.
Now he has shelled out £75million on a centre back in Virgil van Dijk. And Mourinho said: “If I was one of you I would ask him about his comments about one year ago.
“When he arrived at Liverpool, he trusted a lot his quality as a good coach, which he is, he trusted a lot his work, he said a few words and I think now he realises that is not enough to be the champion, to win the Champions League, to win trophies.
“He needs more so you can see Liverpool with Naby Keita that they already did for next summer, Virgil van Dijk and he is a player who can also play Champions League.
“They realise they have to go to the crazy levels of the market because if they don’t, if they offer £40m, Southampton doesn’t sell them the player, it’s as simple as that. That’s the reality.”
When United bought Pogba this is what Klopp had to say: “If you bring one player in for £100m and he gets injured then it all goes through the chimney. The day that this is football, I'm not in a job anymore, because the game is about playing together.
"That is how everybody in football understands it. You always want to have the best, but building the group is necessary to be successful.
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"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.”
Mourinho added yesterday that Van Dijk’s price tag should not be used to compare his ability with great defenders of the past.
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Mourinho said: “You cannot compare the realities.
Virgil van Dijk is the most expensive defender in history of football, was he better than Maldini, Bergomi or Ferdinand?
“You cannot say that, is just the way the market is and you pay or you don't pay.
“If you pay obviously you pay a crazy amount of money but if you don't you don't have the player.
It is as simple as that, so no critics at all about what Liverpool did, is just the way it is.”
United take on Van Dijk’s now former club Southampton at Old Trafford today.