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Jurgen Klopp insists Liverpool won’t pay over the odds for talent – despite his burning desire to strengthen the squad during the current window.

The Reds are hoping to secure a deal for Shakhtar Donetsk’s highly-rated Brazilian attacker Alex Teixeira.

Chief executive Ian Ayre has returned to the UK following talks in America but further negotiations will be held with the Ukrainian outfit.

Liverpool’s initial offer was £24.5million with Shakhtar demanding around £38million.

Whether a compromise can he reached remains to be seen but Klopp says he feels a responsibility to ensure the Reds get value for money in the transfer market.

Klopp said: “I am a normal, smart guy so why should I throw away money?

“I cannot say it is only money going somewhere else. We have money but we are not in Disneyland and say ‘come on, take what you want’.

“We have a budget, we work with it, we have a lot of things to do. The club is building a stand, things like this, this is for the long-term development of the club.

“Don’t stand still, don’t only live for now. This is for the future, that is why I’m here. I know I can handle pressure really good, it is no problem for me.

“For 48 years, my whole life, I have had pressure. I’m used to it. Now we have a situation where we think ‘what will help?’.”

Transfer war chest

Klopp will have the luxury of a much bigger transfer budget at Liverpool than he ever enjoyed during his seven years at Dortmund.

His biggest buy in Germany was the £20million they paid for Henrikh Mkhitaryan back in 2013 when Dortmund beat the Reds to his signature.

But Klopp says the greater resources available at Anfield doesn’t make the challenge facing him more straightforward.

“If you could play with this money in the Bundesliga it would make it much easier,” he said.

“Somebody told me there is a list of the richest clubs and Crystal Palace and teams like this are on it.

“You are in the competition with all the teams who all have money. In Germany we look to England and hear of a player changing clubs for £20m and think ‘oh my god’.

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“A £20million transfer in Germany is a real big one, maybe only three or four clubs have done it. That is the big difference.

“Take the money to Germany and the Bundesliga and it is a big difference but here it doesn’t make a big difference.

“You have unbelievably strong players in each place, and expensive players in each team. Money is not an issue.

“You can’t just go ‘we have money’ and throw it away and take any players you want.

“It is always about the decision, you can sign a lot of rubbish with money or you can make really good decisions.

“The only thing I don’t understand is that all of you don’t think about the players that are here. ‘Take this, take the striker,’ then the next day three strikers are back and we have seven.”

Future looks brighter up front

Liverpool’s need for more firepower is acute but with Daniel Sturridge, Divock Origi and Danny Ings to come back from injury, Klopp says he has to look beyond the current window.

Any major surgery to the squad he inherited will have to wait until the summer and he wants to ensure the pathway remains clear for the club’s young guns to progress.

“Now there is no possibility to say: ‘do this, do that, take him away, bring him back’,” Klopp said.

“We can do two maybe three things, but the rest is for the summer. We cannot change everything now.

“We always have to think about the situation now and who possibly can help for the next three, four, five years. In the summer we will have to make decisions that is normal.

“But my job now cannot be to say: ‘I think in the summer we sell him and sell him’. I don’t think about it.

“I am interested in the development of the whole club. I am interested in the under-21, the under-18s.

“But to do this you have to leave a space for very young players and give them a chance to see that ‘if this or this happens I can play’. That is how you build a squad. And you need a little bit of luck.

“There is one team with a similar number of games as us and that is Tottenham, but they nearly played the whole season with the same team.

“They don’t need 30 players at this moment, they need 17. When I came here we had four long term injuries, only 20 players and then it starts with the small injuries and problems we had.

“Playing with the best squad every week, with the best players every week, you know we would have had a few points more.

“Now we have to work on this situation and then in the summer, believe me, we will be prepared for next season.”