Bookies under the impression that cash adds up to cups

IT may have passed many Liverpool fans by, but some of the bookies appear not to like us very much.

While it’s not too surprising that Chelsea and Manchester City lead the way in the betting for the Premier League title – both clubs have been throwing money around like confetti over the summer – it’s the Reds’ odds in the cup competitions that have really caught the eye.

City (7/2) have been installed as second favourites for the Champions League behind PSG (11/4) which, if my memory serves me right, is still a competition neither side have ever won, as the betting analysts report.

City may have spent £100million on Jack Grealish, but I’m not sure a side boasting the likes of Kevin de Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez are really lacking in the creativity department. And with PSG adding to their glittering array of talent with the acquisition of Lionel Messi, it seems that it’s as much a battle to get on the subs’ bench as it is to get in both sides’ first team.

It’s something which, unsurprisingly, is seen as a potential problem in Jurgen’s eyes.

“A squad has to work. It’s not that much fun when you have 40 players and 22 of them are not in a good mood any weekend,” Klopp told German magazine BILD. “With us, all players have a right to exist and are very satisfied. But just bringing in players doesn’t make sense.

“Paris won 4-2 against Brest. If you see the names for PSG you’d expect it to be 8-0 – but it was 4-2. The nice thing about football is that nobody knows beforehand who will win. Some have better chances, some worse. But everyone has a chance. That’s what I think is great about football.”

As has been shown in the past, the clubs with the deepest pockets don’t always produce the best sides, and experience at the business end of the Champions League matters, reported BBC Sport and koptalk.com.

While Chelsea would not win any popularity contests on Merseyside, it’s difficult to argue that they are not over-priced at 10/1 – the same odds as Liverpool – to retain the competition they won in Portugal last May.

So, Liverpool (six European Cups) and Chelsea (two European cups) are deemed also-rans behind the Manc big-spenders (no European Cups) and the moneybags of Paris (no European Cups). The bookies clearly believe in the theory that the more you spend the greater the return which, in football, isn’t always the case.

While the EFL Cup is something of a lottery with the youngsters on display until the quarter-finals at least, 9/1 for Klopp’s kids is surely a little too generous. City of course are favourites for that competition (3/1) and with Pep Guardiola’s leading the betting for the FA Cup (4/1) the gambling firms may just be thinking that it’s really not worth bothering unless your manager is called Josep.