Liverpool FC manager Jurgen Klopp has said that leaving the UEFA Champions League title without a try will not earn him a flight to EPL cup trophy.
The Reds have 29 years dry spell in the Premier League and this could be one of their lacky seasons to win the trophy, with just a point behind league leaders Manchester City.
In response to former Manchester United player Gary Neville, who earlier suggested that Liverpool shoild let go of the UEFA Champions race for the benefit of securing EPL, Klopp said “no manager can have a response for that question.”
Here is Klopp’s response;
“It only happens if you’re Liverpool manager and the pundits come from Manchester United.”
“They [pundits] talk constantly, it doesn’t mean they make more sense because of that. That’s the problem.
“It is so easy to sit in an office or a studio and talk about things like that.
“We don’t draw up a season and say the best way to go through it is to go out of all the cup competitions early.
“You do that and in that moment the same people go for you like mad.
“Now it is closer to the end of the season and it is allowed to go out of the Champions League without even trying to go through? That’s really mad.
“I am not angry about it. It’s just so mad that I constantly get confronted by it.”
According to BBC Sports Klopp refers to the competion as ‘a money-throwing competition’, and highlighted its benefits to the club.
A run to last year’s final earned the Reds about £72m, which contributed to a £106m world record profit.
“We all have to qualify constantly for the Champions League – that’s what gives us the money to improve,” said Klopp.
“When we qualified [for the knockout phase] by beating Napoli I’m unsure how much we earned – a lot in one game.”
Benefits
The sum was £8.1m in addition to about £23m, excluding additional television revenue, accumulated from their efforts in the group stage.
If Liverpool reach the quarter-finals they will receive an additional £9m, and progression to the final would be worth another £23.6m.
Klopp said: “It is a money… what is it? It is a money-throwing competition and we have to be in it as long as possible because we have to improve the situation for the club.
“I didn’t think a second before that game [against Napoil], ‘Oh my God, we have to earn this money for the club.’
“We only wanted to go through. After we got through it was like, ‘Wow, that’s proper.’
“We have to earn most of the money for ourselves with the football that we play. That is exactly what you can do in the Champions League.”
The reds face off Bayern Munich on Wednesday night after a goalless draw in the last 16 first leg.