Chelsea
and Liverpool has been a heated rivalry during the Premier League era but
the appointment of Frank Lampard at Stamford Bridge appears to have added
extra spice given his exchanges with Jurgen Klopp, on the touchline and in
the media, in recent months.
Now, as Liverpool prepare for their first away game of their Premier League
title defence, it is perhaps appropriate that they travel to Chelsea - the
biggest spenders of the summer and a club aiming to close the gap on the
champions to become genuine challengers this season.
How the row started
Lampard was the visiting manager on the night that Liverpool celebrated
their first title win in 30 years in July - and made his presence felt on
the touchline with some choice words following a dispute with several
figures on the opposition bench at Anfield.
"Fair play to Liverpool Football Club, they have won the league," Lampard
told Sky Sports after the game. "But also do not get too arrogant with it.
That was my point, but it is done."
Response from Klopp
Klopp can be vocal on the touchline himself but did not take kindly to
Lampard's decision to fan the flames after the final whistle with this
accusation of arrogance.
"You cannot hit me with something like that - or my bench with something
like that - because we are not arrogant," the Liverpool boss responded.
"Frank was in a really competitive mood and I respect that a lot. You can
pretty much, from my point of view, say what you want in a situation like
that. For me, it's after the game. It's completely over. I have said a lot
in the past because it is pure emotion. But what he has to learn is to
finish it with the final whistle and he did not do that.
"Speaking after it like this is not OK. Frank has to learn. He has a lot of
time to learn, he is a young coach. But he has to learn."
Klopp's spending claim
With the season over, all seemed to be forgotten but Klopp's decision to
highlight Chelsea's spending and contrast it with that of Liverpool during
the transfer window changed all that.
"We live in a world at the moment with a lot of uncertainty," Klopp
explained. "For some clubs it seems to be less important how uncertain the
future is - owned by countries, owned by oligarchs, that is the truth. We
are a different kind of club.
"We got to the Champions League final two years ago, we won it last year,
and became Premier League champions last season by being the club we are, by
being led the way we are led. We cannot just change it overnight and say 'so
now we want to behave like Chelsea, now we want to behave like them' now
they have signed a lot of players."
Klopp was speaking in the wake of Chelsea signing Timo Werner for £50m - a
deal that Liverpool found a little too rich for their tastes despite
interest in the striker's talents.
With Lampard also being provided the funds to acquire Hakim Ziyech, Thiago
Silva, Ben Chilwell and Kai Havertz this summer, there is no denying that he
has been backed.
However, the Chelsea boss bristles at the notion that Liverpool's journey to
becoming Premier League champions did not come with considerable spending of
their own.
Response from Lampard
"I was less annoyed with it, I found it slightly amusing," said Lampard. "It
is a fantastic story of a club - over four and a half, five years that
Jurgen Klopp's been there - that have managed to get recruitment right to a
really high level.
"The really smart thing they have done is believe in their coach and system
for a number of years. It's a great story, but it is story that has seen
money spent on players. What we have done is come off the back of a ban and
tried to address the situation to improve."
Does Lampard have a point?
There is some mitigation here that helps to explain Chelsea's lavish
spending. As alluded to by Lampard, the club's earlier transfer ban had
allowed them to stockpile funds for the summer so it was no surprise to see
owner Roman Abramovich dip into the market.
It is also worth acknowledging that while Liverpool do not have the sort of
external funding enjoyed by some of their rivals, this more organic growth
has not prevented spending.
Alisson Becker arrived for a world-record fee for a goalkeeper when
Liverpool paid £67m for his services, while the £75m paid for Virgil van
Dijk was a world record for a defender.
Liverpool's brilliant front three of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto
Firmino have all proven bargains but still cost around £100m to assemble at
Anfield, while Klopp boasts options in a midfield that includes no fewer
than five players who cost £20m or more.
But that is not the whole story
Such spending does not seem so big when the departures from Anfield are
factored in. Indeed, the purchase of Van Dijk was entirely funded in the
same transfer window by the huge £145m fee that Barcelona paid for Philippe
Coutinho that January.
Liverpool's clever work in the market has seen them recoup money from the
sale of squad players too, with Bournemouth paying big sums for Jordon Ibe
and Dominic Solanke. Since Klopp's arrival, the club's net spend is a mere
fraction of the Manchester clubs.
It is a testament to Klopp's fine work, although there is perhaps an element
of self-interest in Lampard's claims that the German's success is an
argument for sticking with a manager over an extended period. How he would
love Chelsea to wait so long for a first trophy.
But Klopp's track record demanded time, having won back-to-back Bundesliga
titles with Borussia Dortmund. While Lampard had lost a Championship playoff
final with Derby County at Wembley, Klopp's high-profile defeat there had
come in the Champions League final.
Downplaying the rivalry
In the immediate build-up to the game, both managers sought to calm the
mood, painting this so-called rivalry as a media construction rather than a
case of any genuine animosity.
"There is a lot of airtime for you to have to fill with talk of these
rivalries so I understand that sometimes they can be scrutinised in every
possible way," said Lampard.
"I have got a huge amount of respect for him as a manager, I always have.
What he has done at Liverpool in the course of time has been incredible and
that's on him as the focal point of the club. There is nothing in it for me.
The competitive nature of the 90 minutes can always slightly boil over. The
respect I have for Jurgen Klopp will never change."
Klopp has also sought to defuse the
rivalry.
"When you ask me a question, I answer it and everybody takes it the way they
want to take it," he added. "It might be a language issue or something. You
made up a story that I said about the 'transfer behaviour of Chelsea'. What
I said was in the situation we are in, we cannot deal with the situation the
same as other clubs. One of them was Chelsea.
"Then you create a rivalry between Frank Lampard and me. Why? We meet two or
three times a year. I respect a lot what he's doing. He's probably a really
nice guy, but I don't know because I don't know him privately and he doesn't
know me.
"I have no problems, none at all, with Frank Lampard."
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