Jurgen Klopp Hints at Liverpool Signing Before Deadline But Insists Transfer Policy Is 'Long-Term'

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has explained that the club's transfer policy is strictly long-term, but the Reds boss remains open to making one more signing

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has explained that the club's transfer policy is strictly long-term, but the Reds boss remains open to making one more signing this summer after confirming that he is 'still looking'. 

Liverpool have only signed Dutch teenager Sepp van den Berg since winning the Champions League at the start of June and Klopp has previously expressed on more than one occasion that there will be no repeats of the vast spending of the last two years.

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There have bizarre links with PSG superstar Kylian Mbappe among others, but Klopp is insistent that the club is only interested in players for whom there is a genuine long-term need.

"We are still looking, but it will not be the (biggest) transfer window of LFC. It just will be a transfer window. We will see what we do, and if we haven't done anything by the end it will be for different reasons," Klopp explained to the Liverpool Echo.

"It's about using this team. In the transfer window, you have to build a team that you think you want to go into the season with. But I have that team already.

"If we can bring somebody else in that makes it even better, we will see. But if not, this team is already there. And again we will have to find solutions at different moments."

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For Klopp, there is no point signing a player who will only have a short-term impact, like as cover for an injury crisis, for example. He resisted the call to sign a new defender last January when injuries piled up because any new arrival would only have been needed for a couple of weeks.

Having too many players then makes it difficult for development because there are not enough places in the team to allow everyone enough opportunity to play and improve.

"Transfer strategy has to be long term," Klopp commented. "Short term covers the problem, but doesn't solve it. If someone gets an injury, and you buy someone to fill the position and three weeks later the injured player is back, then you have double quality in the same position.

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"Having too much quality doesn't help with the development of players. You have to create a situation where you need the player, you need the boys. That's what we try. We have 100% always long-term plans. That's what is really good about this football club."

Klopp has been tipped to hand homegrown teenager Rhian Brewster a first-team role this season following the departure of Daniel Sturridge, while he is also said to have stopped winger Ryan Kent from rejoining Steven Gerrard's Rangers on loan for a second season.

Fellows academy products Adam Lewis, Yasser Larouci and Harry Wilson have all also been involved in Liverpool's pre-season games as they vie to be involved in the first-team in 2019/20.