Lampard amused by Klopp's Chelsea spending dig

11:21am on Monday 14th September 2020
By Martin Macdonald

Frank Lampard admits he was amused by Jurgen Klopp previously saying that Liverpool did not have the means to spend huge amounts of money like other clubs in the league who were owned by "countries and oligarchs".

After being under a transfer ban last season, Chelsea are making up for lost time and have spent well over £200m this summer on Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner, Ben Chilwell, Thiago Silva, and Kai Havertz.

Liverpool, meanwhile, have signed just one player, Kostas Tsimikas, from Olympiacos for £12m.

The vast difference in spending led Klopp to say that the ownership of certain clubs mean they can spend a lot more than Liverpool.

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Lampard shrugged off the comments, though, and reckons nearly every team who has enjoyed success in the Premier League has spent money to do so.

"I was less annoyed with it, I found it more, slightly amusing, I would say," said Lampard.

"Because I think when you talk about the owners of clubs, I don't think it matters what line of business they come from, we're talking about some very wealthy owners of clubs in the Premier League.

"I think with Liverpool's story - and I referenced it a lot last year, Liverpool's story - it's a fantastic story of a club over four-and-a-half, five years that Jurgen Klopp's been there that have managed to get recruitment right to a really high level.

"And the reality is probably, other than maybe Leicester, which is an incredible story, most clubs that win the Premier League in the modern day have recruited well and recruited at a high level money-wise."

Lampard went on to point out some of the players who cost Liverpool big fees when they signed, including Virgil van Dijk and Alisson who commanded a combined £142m

"And you can go through the Liverpool players: Van Dijk, Alisson, Fabinho, Keita, Mane, Salah, incredible players, that came at a very high price," he continued.

"So Liverpool have done it, and they've done it over a period of time. What we've done is come off the back of a ban, probably tried to address the situation ourselves to help improve us.

"So I think it's par for the course, and I think we all know that there's no point in doing the maths too much because I think we know that Liverpool have spent at a high level, we know they have an incredible coach, we know they have incredible players.

Liverpool started their Premier League defence off with a win on Saturday against Leeds, while Chelsea have had to wait until Monday evening to kick of their campaign when they face Brighton.

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