Jose Mourinho aimed a thinly veiled dig at Jurgen Klopp for our manager’s criticism of Paul Pogba’s £89m transfer back to Manchester United, but the German has cleverly not bitten back.
Klopp had simply stated that Liverpool will try to be successful another way, but the Portuguese took enormous offence and claimed he didn’t speak about managers at other clubs (the most ridiculous thing we’ve ever heard) and that Liverpool were not a big enough club to sanction that kind of deal in the first place.
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“I’m absolutely not interested in what other clubs are doing, there’s completely no point,” the boss replied, reported in the Echo.
“I’m focused on here. I cannot criticise what they are doing, I don’t want to criticise the market.
“If they spent money for players then they are convinced, I’m sure, about quality, they have the money hopefully, then do it.
“We spent money and not five pounds! Decent money. It’s better that we have money and maybe we’ll get a little bit more before August 31. It looks healthy. It makes sense that it looks something like healthy. You buy, you sell.
“It’s not about going to the owners and saying ‘I don’t want to do it’. Not because they won’t do it. They are really on our side.
“We want to have success, we need to have success and all the others too. You need to find a way for you which could work because nobody knows.”
Mourinho has classically achieved success in the Premier League by winding up other managers and getting into their heads. He’s famously had Arsene Wenger’s number on countless occasions and used to battle our former boss Rafa Benitez – a sign of respect in many ways for clubs he thinks could be rivals.
Klopp is a genuine rival, but proved with our 3-1 win over Chelsea last term, when Mourinho was in charge, that he’s not going to be led down Jose’s path.
The pair will first face each other this term mid-October, when United head to Anfield for a Monday 8pm kick-off.
That’ll be a mighty frenetic affair, and if both teams start the campaign well – it’s going to be a mighty fascinating clash.