Frank Lampard responds to Jurgen Klopp's dig at Chelsea's transfer spending spree

Frank Lampard has hit back at a dig from Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp over Chelsea's summer spending.

The Stamford Bridge side have splashed out this summer, having spent more than £200million on Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Ben Chilwell, among others.

In contrast, Liverpool have spent just £11.7m this summer to bring Kostas Tsimikas from Olympiakos to Anfield as a backup left-back.

Klopp said his Premier League champions could not "behave like Chelsea ", insisting the Reds are a “different kind of club” than those "owned by countries, owned by oligarchs".

The manager said his side had become kings of Europe and England "by being the club we are" - although of course Liverpool did sign Virgil van Dijk for £75m and Alisson for £67m before winning the Champions League and Premier League.

And as he prepares his Chelsea side to kick off their season against Brighton on Monday, Lampard said he found Klopp's comments "amusing".

"I was less annoyed with it - I found it more, slightly amusing," said Lampard in quotes reported by BBC Sport.

The Chelsea manager added: "Liverpool's story - it's 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 reality is probably that othe than Leicester, most clubs that win the Premier League have recruited well and recruited at a high level money-wise.

"You can go through the Liverpool players: Van Dijk, Alisson, Fabinho, Keita, Mane, Salah, incredible players, that came at a very high price.

"Liverpool have done it, and they've done it over a period of time."

Lampard pointed out that Chelsea had been unable to spend big last summer due to transfer ban, which was halved on appeal in December last year, allowing them to sign players from last January.

"What we've done is come off the back of a ban and tried to address the situation to improve," said the former England star and Stamford Bridge legend.

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Chelsea have been active this summer, signing Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Ben Chilwell, Hakim Ziyech, Malang Sarr and Thiago Silva.

However, one player who continues to be linked with the Blues is West Ham and England midfielder Declan Rice.

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"We know Liverpool have spent at a high level, we know they have an incredible coach, we know they have incredible players.

"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's story that has seen money spent on players.

"This summer we've spent money on players, and now the hard work has to be done."

Chelsea have signed Hakim Ziyech from Ajax for £33.3m, striker Timo Werner from RB Leipzig for around £48m, attacking midfielder Kai Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen for £72m and left-back Ben Chilwell from Leicester City for £45m.

They also brought in Thiago Silva on a free transfer after he left Paris-Saint Germain, and signed fellow centre-back Malang Sarr from Nice, while they are expected to complete an £18m deal for Rennes keeper Edouard Mendy in the coming days.