Jürgen Klopp has said Cody Gakpo would have been “unattainable” if Liverpool had waited to land his signature and that money is available for more signings in the January window.
The Dutch World Cup star will officially become a Liverpool player on January 1 after the Anfield club beat off rival interest to seal his transfer from PSV Eindhoven for an initial €40m, which amount to 50 million euros. Klopp believes Liverpool needed to come forward with plans to sign the 23-year-old as his rate of development could have put him out of financial reach in the near future.
The Liverpool manager also admitted that the acquisition of Gakpo does not necessarily mean the end of January signings, although, with his top target Jude Bellingham set to remain at Borussia Dortmund until the end of the season, it seems unlikely a new midfielder next month.
Klopp said: “In principle I would say it’s like that for every person in the world, the money you spend has an impact on the money you can spend in the future. It doesn’t increase it. But this [Gakpo’s signing and other January plans] it has nothing to do with each other.
“We know what we want to do and we’ll see if we can do it. It’s about money, of course, but it’s more about what it’s always been about: the right players. And we’re very, very happy that we were able to get Cody.
“He is a young player with a lot of potential. If he had already scored 40 goals in Spain or whatever, it would be unacceptable. That kind of thing is about timing, getting those guys at the right time who haven’t scored 55 goals a season and things like that.
“That’s why we were really convinced that he could take the next step, and that makes it interesting. We believe in our process, when players come here, especially offensive players, they’ve all stepped up because of the way we work and the way we can help them. That makes it very interesting.”
Gakpo is ineligible for the Premier League game at home to Leicester on Friday and, due to paperwork issues and a post-World Cup holiday, is unlikely to feature at Brentford on Monday. The FA Cup third-round tie against Wolves on January 7 is a more realistic date for his debut.
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The striker’s arrival gives Klopp plenty of options in the final third, at least as Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota recover from long-term injuries, but will not bring Roberto Firmino closer to leaving Anfield, according to his manager. Firmino’s contract expires at the end of this season and Klopp confirmed that talks over an extension are ongoing.
“Not for me, absolutely not,” Klopp said of whether the signing of Gakpo affected Firmino’s future. “We had conversations with Bobby and I can say that from my point of view I definitely want him to stay. No impact. If you mean by impact that Bobby can move, you have to ask Bobby, but from my point of view in sight, no.”