Liverpool after premier class-Aus
Salah ‘devastated’, Klopp wants transfers
05/26/2023 12:27 p.m
What’s next for Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp? It has been clear since Thursday that the Reds will not play in the Champions League next season. Superstar Mohamed Salah is suffering, the German coach is looking forward to the coming transfer summer.
Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp is positive about the future despite his team failing to qualify for the Champions League. “This season was not necessarily historically good,” said Klopp on Friday before the meaningless away game against Southampton FC, which has already been relegated. “But of course there are reasons for optimism. The atmosphere that the people created at our last home game, the way the club said goodbye to the players who left us, all these things are the basis for a fantastic future.”
Since Manchester United’s 4-1 win over Chelsea on Thursday evening, it has been clear that the Reds will end the season in fifth place in the English Premier League and will not play in the top flight next season. Striker Mohamed Salah was severely disappointed on social media late Thursday evening and self-critically said that he was “devastated”. “We had everything we needed to make it to the Champions League this year and we failed,” wrote Salah, 30. “I just saw him in the canteen and he smiled,” Klopp then gave the all-clear. “I don’t know why, I didn’t ask him, but he wasn’t in a bad mood.”
Klopp expects a difficult transfer summer
The coach admitted that he himself had already ticked off the Champions League after Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Aston Villa last Saturday. “After the last game, when it was clear that the competition only needed one more point, I knew they would get it,” said Klopp. “I drew a line under it. I’m an optimist, but at that moment I didn’t believe in it anymore.”
If you don’t qualify for the Champions League, “the best place you can get is fifth. And we have that. Ten games ago I would have said that it wasn’t possible. That the boys did it is really good. I’ve seen a lot of good things and I’ll take that with me into the new season,” said Klopp, whose team found consistency too late in the season.
The 55-year-old does not believe that missing the premier class for Liverpool could be a disadvantage on the transfer market. Nevertheless, Klopp expects a difficult transfer summer. “It’s always possible and likely that it won’t be as big as you want,” he said, “because the better the player, the less a club wants to let him go. But we’re prepared for that.”