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‘Not sure I want them to be honest’: Jurgen Klopp rules out trying to sign a Champions League-seeking player next season if Liverpool fail to qualify, with Jude Bellingham among his transfer targets
- Liverpool currently sit sixth in the league, seven points out of the top four.
- Champions League football can be an important factor in attracting the best players
- Jurgen Klopp isn’t sure he’s interested in players who didn’t want him
Jurgen Klopp doesn’t think Champions League participation is the only thing transfer targets need to look out for, but finishing in the top four won’t do any harm when going after stars like Jude Bellingham.
So the stakes are high when Liverpool return to league action at Aston Villa on Boxing Day.
They have been playing catch-up since the start of the season when they collected just two points from nine and although their form has improved they are still sixth, seven points off a Champions League place.
Jurgen Klopp says he would hesitate to sign players who did not want the Champions League
Facing a Villa team without World Cup-winning goalkeeper Emi Martinez is an advantage, but that’s offset by injuries to Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino, leaving the lightweight visitors up front. .
“The first four are our main target,” Klopp admitted. ‘Fifteen points behind leaders Arsenal, you can’t ask if we will be champions.
‘At the moment we still have two paths to qualify and as long as that is the case, I see ourselves as appropriate contenders.
I want to be in the Champions League all the time and 100 percent we are one of the contenders for the next few years.
“If a player would rather go to a club that is in the Champions League this year but maybe not next year, I’m not sure I want to, to be honest.”
It will be much more difficult to sign players like Jude Bellingham if they are not in the top four.
It is rare that elite players choose clubs knowing that they are not in the Champions League; Paul Pogba was an exception when he signed for Manchester United in 2016.
More common is the example of Eden Hazard who, like Bellingham, was hounded by all of the biggest teams in Europe and only settled for Chelsea once he learned they had qualified for the main competition.
Klopp could not have made his admiration for Bellingham more apparent in his final press conference before heading to Villa Park, describing the 19-year-old Borussia Dortmund player as ‘exceptional’.
And he’s also confident that his current set of players is capable of emulating his hot streak from 12 months ago when they began 2022 with 15 unbeaten games through March.
“The signals I received at our training ground in Dubai during the World Cup were very positive,” said the Liverpool manager. ‘There were also positives against Manchester City in the EFL Cup on Thursday even though we lost 3-2. If all the signs are positive, I see no reason not to be.
It has been completely different to our preseason in the summer. I saw in the friendlies that we just played that we are going in the right direction. Against AC Milan he was really good in all aspects.’
Apart from the injuries at the front, James Milner is unlikely to show up for tea after pulling his hamstring at the Etihad, with World Cup finalist Ibrahima Konate only returning to training on Tuesday.
‘Having two long-term injuries up front doesn’t help. It never was, it never will be,’ said Klopp, who is looking for reinforcements in the January window.
‘Last season we had Luis Diaz, who was very useful for that part of the season. Do something again that is very positive, why not?’