Jurgen Klopp has come out to say reaching the group stages of the Champions League can ease Liverpool’s stress in the transfer market.
Liverpool convincingly defeated Hoffenheim 6-3 on aggregate in a two-legged Champions League playoff.
“It’s a big influence on the transfer market, especially if you do it [qualify for the Champions League] more often,” Klopp told a news conference.
“I said before the game that if you talk to players — and players better than ours are difficult to find, I know a lot of people think differently, but we do the work and it’s not easy to find 20 top players in each position — they say: ‘Oh if you play Champions League, it would be really great because the club is good, the manager is not too bad’ and all this stuff.
“Even if you want to extend the contract of a player in the squad they say: ‘We want to play Champions League.’ And I always think: ‘WTF?! It’s your job to do it with us together. Don’t ask us to do the job so you can play Champions League.’
“We do it together and that’s what this team did. That’s why I’m so happy about this — 14 months of hard work and we did it. Nice!”
“It’s all that the club, the team, we worked for in the last 14 months. I know you will always find a few people who will say: ‘It’s just the Champions League or only the Champions League.’ But we wanted to be part of it with all we have.
“I saw the boys play a few pieces of outstanding football. How it is in a game like this, especially against an opponent like Hoffenheim, you also have a few problems. That’s how it is.
“But I’m really happy about the deserved qualification for the group stage.”
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