Over the weekend, in an interview with the Sunday Times, Didi Hamann called Liverpool's decision to give Jurgen Klopp an extension to his contract, which now runs until 2022, 'absolute madness'.
Hamann likes Klopp but, speaking on Eamon Dunphy's podcast 'The Stand', expressed a belief that overall things have not sufficiently altered at the club since Brendan Rodgers left to justify the extension - 'Nothing really changed because they were trophyless and they finished in seventh place.'
The fact that the club in those eight months saw enough to offer him a contract extension, when you lost two finals and the points tally didn't improve, shows me that they must have been thinking, 'Things are going well here.'
If I was on the board, I would have said, 'Things improved slightly, we lost in two finals, if we bring in a few more of his players then we could be on a winner here.'
I certainly would not have said that we are on a winner and we should extend his contract to six years.
Hamann believes that there is a complacency at Liverpool which is built upon a false belief that they are still a big Premier League and European club.
I think that the mindset in the football club is that too many people think, 'We're going great', when actually they're not. The reason for that is huge history, the club creates huge interest. I think financially, when you look at sponsorship deals, they're doing as well as they've ever done. The only reason that's the case is because of what Bill Shankly built and a few years later they followed with four European Cups in the 70s and 80s. That's the reason the club creates interest.
There's a complacency in the club. They think because people are interested because when they go to Asia, they go to America, they've got thousands of people waiting at the airport when we do arrive, it gives them a false sense of belief that they are a big Premier League club or a leading European club. For years, they haven't been.
That is a complacency which he can also see in the players.
You can see it with the players as well. If the manager gets a contract after losing two finals, they may think, 'Things are going great here.' At the end of the day, Liverpool is about winning things and they haven't done it for a number of years now.
The former German international says that the mentality at Liverpool must change, but is unsure if Klopp is powerful enough or will get sufficient time to do so.
Hamann also doubts if some of the players in Klopp's squad are good enough to be playing for Liverpool.
They think they are a massive club, which at the moment, they are not. All Liverpool has going for it at the moment is history.
That's how the team plays. They do well against Chelsea or Manchester City and all of a sudden they think they are top players and they are a top team. Then they go to Burnley or Hull and they get beat. There's no consistency or stability.
I'd have to question some of the players, whether they are good enough to play for Liverpool. In the last few years, if you look back, there was a [FA Cup] semi-final against Aston Villa, there was a [League Cup] semi-final against Southampton which they lost. There was obviously the two finals against Man City and Seville. They didn't lose against Real Madrid or AC Milan or Chelsea or Man Utd, they lost against teams like Aston Villa, who were fighting relegation at the time.
I just feel some of these players have been there for a number of years now, everytime the chips were down, they kept failing. I think you need to make drastic changes. Whether he has the money to do it or they have the time to do it, I'm not sure.
