The player Ole Gunnar Solskjær bought on deadline day was originally bought by Sir Alex Ferguson in 2003. The one recruited by Kenny Dalglish in 2011 put pen to paper for Jürgen Klopp. The differences between Cristiano Ronaldo and Jordan Henderson are manifold but one is that the Liverpool captain never left the club where he won the Premier League and the Champions League.
If Ronaldo is Manchester United’s marquee signing, Henderson is a symbol of Liverpool’s contrasting attitude. They are the continuity club in the probable title race, the exception to the rule in a culture of consumption. Chelsea have bought Romelu Lukaku, Manchester City the £100m man Jack Grealish, United the glamorous trio of Jadon Sancho, Raphaël Varane and Ronaldo.
Liverpool have acquired only Ibrahima Konaté, the young centre-back who is yet to take the field and, like Henderson a decade ago, has been bought partly for his potential. But they have re-signed six stalwarts of their most successful side since the 1980s: Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andrew Robertson, Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Henderson have new contracts.
“We thought it made sense that we sign up our squad that we have,” Klopp said. “That is not as spectacular as all the rest around. I cannot change that because you cannot do transfer business just to be in a circus.”
That was a comment on the artificial, cartoonish sense of entertainment the transfer window provides rather than calling Solskjær a clown, though Klopp is all too aware his observations on others’ spending do not pass unnoticed. “My problem is obviously my English because from time to time I annoy some other managers and I don’t want to annoy them,” he said.
“I’m not interested in it. I say something, I think it’s right and then two days later I hear the response from somebody and think: ‘Why is he on his toes?’ But, honestly, I couldn’t care less what other clubs are doing.”
For the record, United’s interest in Ronaldo came as no shock. “I’m not surprised that they do it, I was surprised that Cristiano left Juve, I didn’t know that would happen. Clubs do business.”
Liverpool can seem to do less than most, certainly at the top end of the market. Klopp’s average annual net spend is around £17m. He seems an advertisement for austerity. Two years ago, Liverpool’s summer recruits consisted of two veteran back-up goalkeepers and two teenagers. They duly won 26 of their first 27 league games and surged to the title. It was a triumph of balancing the books, among other things, and while the owner, Fenway Sports Group, has been criticised for being less lavish than some of its counterparts elsewhere, Klopp is adamant he endorses the approach.
“In a few weeks I am six years here and I signed up for this way when I arrived,” he said. “In that time, we were quite successful: not the most successful in the world, but quite successful. We won a couple of trophies exactly with that way and it’s the same in all transfer windows.”
But the winter window will bring a further focus on Liverpool’s trading. Perhaps they could do with the attacking reinforcements others have secured. They will lose Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah to January’s Africa Cup of Nations and, unlike with the farrago that threatened to deprive them of their Brazilians against Leeds on Sunday, Klopp has no complaints, objecting instead to simplistic remedies.
“That’s completely fine, we knew it and we will deal with it,” he said. “People are now saying: ‘You have to sign two strikers of the same quality of Sadio and Mo.’ That cannot be the solution because we cannot do that.”
If Liverpool’s solution is more of the same, the context has changed along with opposition lineups. Their task feels tougher with every superstar their rivals attract. It is a further test of Klopp’s long-serving loyalists.
“Other teams signed players, fine,” he said. “Now we will play them and see what we can do.”