Manchester: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes Liverpool have spent well in paying £75million ($100million) for Virgil van Dijk, because he thinks high-quality players work out cheaper in the long run.

Guardiola was interested in signing Van Dijk from Southampton, but missed out after Liverpool agreed a deal on Wednesday, with the player making the move officially when the transfer window opens on January 1.

City’s manager has spent heavily on defenders himself since his arrival at the Etihad Stadium in July 2016.

Before the start of this season, he brought in Benjamin Mendy from Monaco in a deal that could be worth £52million, Kyle Walker from Tottenham for an initial £45million, and Danilo from Real Madrid for £26.5million.

That came a year after he spent £47.5million on signing England centre-back John Stones away from Everton.

“Liverpool took an amazing player,” said Guardiola.

“Van Dijk is an exceptional central defender, that’s a price we’ll see (again) in the future.

Mourihno mischief

Jose Mourinho meanwhile has mischievously highlighted the changing view of Jurgen Klopp after his Liverpool counterpart spent £75 million to sign Southampton’s Van Dijk this week.

The Manchester United manager cheekily suggested on Friday that if he were a member of the media, he would ask Klopp about his comments, 18 months ago, when the German claimed he would not want to spend huge amounts of money even if it were available to him.

At that time, Klopp was responding to a summer in which United were on the verge of breaking the world record by paying £89 million for Paul Pogba -- a figure “only” £14 million more than Liverpool spent this week to land van Dijk.

“You know, I think the one that speaks about it in a specific way has to be Jurgen,” said Mourinho ahead of Southampton’s trip to Old Trafford on Saturday.

“And if I was one of you I would ask him about his comments about one year ago.”

Agence France-Presse