LIVERPOOL FC V TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR FC
Sunday 5th May 16.30
Jürgen’s Penultimate Home Game
“Sing him home!”
Person going by the title of referee: Paul Tierney
Assistants: Scott Ledger and Mat Wilkes
Fourth official: Tom Bramall
VAR: John Brooks
It was a long time ago when I volunteered to write this. It was possibly a time when I held some passing interest in how other teams might fare. I’ll get them out the way first. At the time of writing, Spurs are preparing to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge as they try to oust Aston Villa from the fourth Champions League spot. One hopes they will be leggier than us thanks to that midweek game. Other than that, Paul Tierney has most amusingly been picked by the PGMOL to ‘officiate’.
Now to deal with what is far more important – how we say goodbye to one of our greatest managers, one of the most inspiring and yet most human of men in public life. I read a post in the ‘New Manager’ thread this week in which someone expressed excitement about the new regime. I’m not there yet. I’ve supported this club since the mid-1970s so the manager I revere has been, and always will be, Bob Paisley. Klopp is now his equal in my… I was going to write ‘view’ but it would be more honest, if risking sentimentality, to write ‘heart’.
Yet sentiment – feeling – has been the defining feature of Jürgen Klopp’s managership, the fabric of that elusive connection between him and us. Thanks to his own unruly and joy-filled heart, he gave me my most memorable moment in the half-century I’ve supported Liverpool. I always thought May 25 1977 could not be supplanted, but I have never been so proud to be a Liverpool supporter than the day after the CL Final in 2022. We were all, team included, manager included, dejected after losing out on the title by one point and losing out on a seventh European cup by one goal. We were all angered, if not triggered, by the slipshod organisation and the attempt to shift blame. So many times Jürgen has found the right words. That evening, he said: “Even if nobody on this planet would understand [why] we have a parade, we will do it.”
That was half a million people living up to their anthem, putting it into jubliant, red, rumbunctious action.
Today, that man is drained of energy; he’s spent. When I saw this post, it resonated.
The crowd now needs to take up the slack. They need to be his lungs - more than ever.
It’s his second to last home game. Regardless of what Spurs do, regardless of recent results, regardless of opinion pieces in the media about Salah or Nuñez, regardless of Tierney and matchday officials who have played a big part in reducing our points total, regardless of Abu Dhabi FC and their 115x-asterixed charge at the title, this is all about us and our celebration. Our celebration of Jürgen Klopp. We need to sing him home.
