Gary Neville right with‘genius’ Jürgen Klopp and Alex Ferguson link but Liverpool change needed

Gary Neville right with‘genius’ Jürgen Klopp and Alex Ferguson link but Liverpool change needed

Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp may only have won the Premier League once, but he’s still regarded as one of the very best to ever grace the competition.

Klopp has competed for the title three times but lost out twice, despite amassing a staggering 287 points over those seasons.

There’s an acceptance that the Reds boss would have built a dynasty in any other era, but had the misfortune of coming up against perhaps the greatest side in English football’s modern history in Manchester City.

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What’s more, observers have recognized that Klopp has achieved greatness with a fraction of the resources of his direct competitors.

Since the start of 2016/17 — the manager’s first full season at Anfield — Liverpool’s net spend stands at $297m (£236m/€267m), which, as per Transfermarkt, ranks it 10th in the Premier League, below the likes of Newcastle United, West Ham United, Wolves (which spent two of those years in the Championship) and Aston Villa.

By contrast, Chelsea, under the stewardship of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich before Todd Boehly’s 2022 takeover, has posted a net spend of $924m (£735m/€831m), and Manchester City has reached $742m (£590m/€667m).

Speaking recently on The Overlap, Manchester United legend Gary Neville drew an interesting parallel between Klopp and his legendary coach Sir Alex Ferguson.

Neville said Ferguson demonstrated his ‘genius’ by compiling a squad capable of winning titles with a ‘low spend, relative to the other clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City’.Meanwhileter City’.Meanwhile, Manchester United saw its cross-city rival spend $300m (£239m/€270m) more in five years than its owners (the Glazer family from 2005 onwards) had in 10. The Etihad outfit was pushing up to and past the $150m (£119m/€135m) mark, while Ferguson was never furnished with a budget beyond $100m (£80m/€90m), even after selling Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid in a record-breaking 2009 transfer.

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You might be wondering why five of the seasons above are marked with an asterisk. Well, they mark the years when Manchester United managed to claim the title. To win five of 10 against the nouveau riche was a testament to Ferguson’s might.

Now, a decade on from the Scotsman’s retirement, Liverpool’s owner FSG is searching for outside investment in the hope of closing a damaging resource gap to Chelsea, Manchester City and the new state-backed project on the block in Newcastle.

FSG won’t move away from its self-sustaining business model, so it desperately needs that cash injection from elsewhere, otherwise it will have to rely on further miracles from Klopp.

Indeed, just like Ferguson, he’s propped up the regime with spectacular overachievement, but the current season has proved that, inevitably, this is unsustainable.