Jurgen Klopp fires savage dig at Chelsea owners after another parting jab at Man Utd

Jurgen Klopp has signed off at Liverpool by taking a dig at two of the club’s great rivals.

During a specially arranged ‘Evening with Jurgen Klopp’ in front of fans, he appeared to criticise Man United’s handling of Jadon Sancho and savaged Chelsea’s owners, claiming he would not have lasted a year under them.

Klopp is bewildered by the lack of long-term planning at Chelsea and Enzo Maresca will be their 10th permanent manager of his nine-year reign at Liverpool.

He cannot believe they sacked Mauricio Pochettino after just a year in charge when he was beginning to make some progress and he finished sixth to take the Blues back into Europe. Klopp says clubs need stability and he claims he would not have survived under previous owner Roman Abramovich and current chairman Todd Boehly.

“We should be really happy that we have these owners and not the guys who bought London clubs and stuff like that,” said Klopp, whose reign as Liverpool manager ends tomorrow. “I wouldn’t have survived a year at Liverpool [under them].

‘Great development, but not good enough, sack him!’. A year later ‘sack him’. “Then finally they play football where everybody thinks they might be back and they sack the manager anyway.”

Klopp says Chelsea is an example to Liverpool fans if they feel like moaning about their American owners, FSG, over spending on players. Klopp claims he always felt supported by FSG and that they gave him what they could afford to spend.

“People always think the grass is greener, but we have owners who really feel responsible for the club and work really hard as well to be successful,” he said. “I felt supported. We did it as good as we could have done and I’m fine with it.”

And the German boss also appeared to accuse United and their manager, Eric ten Hag, of turning their backs on Sancho before sending him back to Borussia Dortmund on loan in January. He didn’t specifically name the 24-year-old, but wasn’t subtle with his point.

“If the whole world loses trust and faith in the player, then the manager has to be the one behind the player,” he told the crowd. “I cannot just buy into that ‘he’s useless’ stuff – like other clubs did, by the way. Buying a player for £80million and then sending him out on loan!”

Sancho scored just 12 times in 81 appearances for United after his big money move in the summer of 2022, but his return to Germany has paid dividends. This Saturday, he’ll play for Dortmund in the Champions League final against Real Madrid, with the Red Devils having been knocked out of the competition in the group stages.