Jurgen Klopp appears to have rattled Pep Guardiola with his comments about Manchester City. The Reds boss claimed that Liverpool will never be able to compete financially with state-owned clubs like City as they have “no ceiling”.
Yet after matchday 15 Liverpool sit on top of the Premier League table while the Citizens languish in fourth following a dismal run of results. The Sky Blues had been leading the pack up until an uncharacteristic four-game winless run throughout November and early December.
Guardiola’s men drew with Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham before suffering their second loss of the season away to Aston Villa last week. A 2-1 victory over Premier League new boys Luton Town has snapped their unwanted streak but they remain four points adrift of top spot.
Ahead of City’s trip to Kenilworth Road, Guardiola aimed an odd thinly veiled dig at Liverpool and Arsenal. “The only team who is going to fail by not winning the Premier League is us,” said Guardiola. “City should win. That isn’t fair. It’s difficult to handle every week, every three days, during years and years.”
This comes after Klopp said of his rivals: “Nobody can compete with City. You have the best team in the world and you put in the best striker on the market. No matter what it costs. City doesn’t like it but they know the answer.
“Liverpool can not act like them. It is not possible, not possible. There are three clubs in world football that can do what they want, financially.
“I heard now Newcastle, whatever was said, that there is no ceiling for this club. Yeah, he is right, he is absolutely right; there is no ceiling for Newcastle, congratulations, some other clubs have ceilings.”
Man City are the richest club in the world ahead of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Manchester United. In 2022 they turned over £617.2million in revenue and have spent close to a £1bn in the last decade.
