Klopp calls for “trust” following disappointing transfer window

Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp is calling on supporters to trust the club after they failed to strengthen significantly during the January transfer window.

The Reds refused to pay over the odds for Shakhtar Donetsk attacker Alex Teixeira meaning only one new player was made available to the manager.

Marko Grujic was signed for £5million but immediately loaned back to Red Star Belgrade leaving only Steven Caulker from Championship side QPR as the only new addition.

Klopp explained: “It’s very important that yes, you can trust us.

“It was absolutely a common decision [not to pay more for Teixeira]. We said we can’t play this game until the end.

“We made offers. I won’t say too much about that, but they were realistic, absolutely, with the pluses of it being January, the Premier League, all the pluses you have when you make negotiations with other clubs.

“But it was a case of ‘if you don’t want it okay, we can’t change the situation, do what you want’. It’s important for now and for the future. It’s not that we haven’t got money or anything, but you have to work respectfully and responsibly.

“That’s what we do. We will do things, for sure, not in this transfer window, but we will do things.

“It’s not that you should buy and sell, buy and sell. In my opinion usually I make a one-year contract with the players.

“I know they have them for longer, but for me I say ‘okay, yes, you are in my team and if you don’t play the biggest rubbish in your life, I will trust you, you have to trust me’.

“And after a year, we’ll look. Maybe he wants somewhere else, maybe I want him to go somewhere else. That’s football.

“Now we’re in the middle of the season, I have been here for four months and nothing has happened on transfers. I am fine with that. We can go on working.”

• Stoke City have broken their transfer record by signing midfielder Giannelli Imbula from Porto for a fee of £18.3million.