Jurgen Klopp admits that Liverpool will have ‘splash the cash’ to keep pace with their rivals.
The new European champions finished a solitary point behind Manchester City in the Premier League title race despite spending £150 million on reinforcements.
Klopp previously questioned several high-profile transfers including Paul Pogba’s £89m return to Manchester United and Neymar’s record-breaking switch to PSG.
But in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF, the Liverpool manager now admits that his side must follow the trends of their rivals to ensure they do not fall behind.
“Back when I was in Germany, Bayern had a ‘bottomless pit of money’, like £100m,” said Klopp.
“In today’s market, that gets you one centre-back. So this bottomless pit of money is enough to buy one player in today’s world and that doesn’t even cover their wages!
“The market has changed more than I expected, but I stand by what I said.
“Maybe things were lost in translation but my point was: ‘If we reach a point where football is solely about money and not football, then I’m leaving.’ And I still feel the same way about it.
“Liverpool is an ambitious club and if we didn’t spend the same amount of money as others, we wouldn’t be able to compete.
“Everybody’s splashing the cash, so we have to do the same.”