Jurgen Klopp insists Liverpool cannot ‘play Monopoly’ in the transfer market.
Cody Gakpo’s initial £37 million arrival is set to fill the void in the Anfield club’s front line left by injuries to Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota earlier this season.
But amid speculation about further potential incomings, with Enzo Fernandez and Jude Bellingham, Klopp has attempted to manage fans’ expectations.
Explaining Gakpo’s signing, the Reds’ manager said: “I’m now [here] seven years and two or three months, every transfer window is pretty much the same.
We talk about these kinds of things as if money wouldn’t play a role, like ‘who cares?’ But it will never be like this, that you just spend money.
“I don’t want to disappoint anybody, but we signed an outstanding player like Cody Gakpo and the next thing you read is ‘who next?’.
“It’s as if we wouldn’t have a team, honestly. We cannot play like Monopoly. It’s like this and we never did, so I don’t understand that.
“Of course we cannot just spend – and never could, surprisingly. We always sorted our situations.
“It’s a big part of my philosophy, really working full of faith and trust with the players you have, and not constantly questioning them by telling them that we need another player for that or that position.
“I think with Cody it’s obvious, and not only because we have that void now: the quality he has, the timing is perfect.
“If we would have waited until the summer it would have been definitely even more expensive, or somebody else would have picked him.
“So there’s a lot of potential, it makes absolute sense.
“And with the games we will have in the next years, the games will not get less. We will have more games and all these kinds of things.
“So it’s clear that you need real quality in all positions, and probably two teams on the same level, if you want, so that you can rotate and these kinds of things.
“That’s what we try to prepare, obviously.
“But that somebody’s surprised when I say we will not now start ‘splashing the cash’. We never did it and I know it, anyway. That should be really clear.
“If there is something we can do, that was always the case, and that means right player and financial situation, we will do it – and if not, then not.”