JURGEN KLOPP FOR EVER
Jurgen placed his mobile back on the table, took a sip of expresso and then said to his wife and sons, “Liverpool FC. How does that sound?”
Forty-eight hours later he was sitting in the cabin of the most tracked aircraft in the history of aviation.
Nearly nine years beyond that he - and we - are about to experience a ‘Leaving of Liverpool’ which will compare in emotional power with any of the multitude of sad, awesome and heart-wrenching departures that people have made, and been forced to make, from Pier Head to far flung parts of the world over centuries past. That might seem an odd thing to say about a football coach. But Jurgen Klopp is the most beloved figure to walk the precincts of Anfield since, arguably, Bill Shankly - and Bill Shankly now sits on Mt Olympus with Zeus and the other fellas. Jurgen’s going, and very soon he will be gone, but the love-affair between us and him will be going nowhere. That’s staying, probably growing, its pulse beating as steadily and purely for generations to come as it does for us, here and now. Jurgen Klopp For Ever.
Do you remember the first game he managed? Tottenham away and a 0-0 draw, the least likely scoreline of the Klopp era. I can recall Adam Lallana being interviewed after the match where he was asked an obvious question. “Was that tiring?” Jurgen had only been with the players for three days and yet, in that first contest, you could see a new culture germinating. The players had hounded Tottenham on the ball - all over the pitch. Lallana was perhaps one of the fittest players to ever play under Klopp but he answered by saying, yes it was exhausting. Then he said something which was quite telling. “But we are professional footballers. We should be fit and we ought to be able to raise our level and meet the new manager’s demands”. It was a confession that, despite the physical efforts of that afternoon, it was just the beginning. Demands were going to be made of the Liverpool squad which were not ordinary. That was, perhaps, a little intimidating for some of them. For us, it was exciting.
Very soon, of course, they began to call us ‘The Crushing Machine’. We were suddenly playing something called ‘Heavy-Metal Football.’ And everybody’s second favourite German word became ‘Gegenpress’ (nothing could ever knock ‘Schadenfreude’ off top spot). It was mighty and it was effective and it left many teams looking like debris after 90 minutes (or 98 minutes as Jurgen taught us to say). One of the man’s achievements is that the vast majority of teams in the Premier League now try to play the same way. Premier League football has improved
with Jurgen Klopp. It had to. Our style evolved too, of course, as more technically gifted, more intuitive players came to Anfield or were promoted from the Academy. Klopp’s teams may have continued to be crushing machines, but they became machines designed by Michelangelo and painted by Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Turner. Beautiful things. A crushing machine driven by Phil Coutinho? Whoever thought that was possible? Heavy-Metal football with a maestro like Bobby Firmino? Why not?
Jurgen’s other mission was to awaken the sleeping demon of Anfield. It seems, from what he has said, that the only club in world football that could have forced him to break his 12-month sabbatical from the game back in 2015 was our club. And the reason for that was the power and the mythology surrounding us. Hence the “Liverpool FC. How does that sound?”. But he also said when he arrived, famously, that he wanted to turn us from “doubters” to “believers”. He wanted to re-ignite the power of the Kop and restore Anfield to its full majesty. This club is only fully understood by romantics and it takes a romantic to harness its spirit and liberate its energy. I think that is Klopp’s greatest achievement. He allowed us to rediscover our essence. He allowed us to be who we truly are. That’s not an easy thing. And the reason he was the perfect leader is that he represented all we wanted to be - the best version of ourselves (as many of his players now say of themselves). A manager who celebrates goals like a supporter, who punches the air then applauds a near miss rather than flings his arms out in annoyance or holds his head in his hands, who screams at inept officials, then laughs with them, who cajoles and empowers his players, who cannot watch penalties being taken, who enjoys to the hilt the moment of triumph with the fans, and - yes - who finds time to commend valiant opponents, even when they beat us - that’s Jurgen Klopp. Despite the host of imitators who’ve taken up some of these practices in the last few years, it’s absolutely nobody else.
There are three important qualities, the three ‘D’s, that Klopp has so supremely embodied while at Liverpool. One is decency. The second is determination. And the third is dignity. Combine the three and you have the recipe for a great leader. And that’s how we all think of Klopp. It’s the way we thought of Shankly. And like Shankly, it goes beyond football. Neither man talked politics much. It wasn’t their job. But they were cut from similar left-wing cloth, despite the immense difference in their backgrounds, and they possessed some of the make-up of great trade-union or labour figures like Bevan or Keir Hardie. They were moral leaders in the city, as well as mere football managers, whether they liked it or not. During Covid-19 I looked to Jurgen more than I ever looked to anyone in the government to say something sensible, or consoling or rational about what we were going through. For a measure of how to feel about racism or homophobia in football, and how to begin to oppose it, you could do no better than see what Jurgen has said. If you have ever seen the video of him with Daire, the Irish lad, you will see how alike they are, despite their age. While our country was reaching for the sewer during the Brexit referendum it was Jurgen who best represented the European idea. The moral authority of the man is palpable. And a key reason for this is that he is not beyond admitting his weaknesses, confessing his mistakes, enjoying his fallibility. It’s no wonder people love him - and we feel fine.
I enjoyed an interview someone did with him about half way through his mission here. He was walking towards the empty Kop and the conversation turned towards the great figures of the past who still haunt the pitch and terraces. Jurgen paid homage to some obvious names - Kenny, Johnny Barnes, Sir Bob. But he had no doubts that Shankly sat above everyone, in a special place. I knew then he completely understood our club. Bill’s trophy haul isn’t as great as, say Bob Paisley’s, but it’s impossible to imagine Liverpool Football Club without Shankly. He is still there, in its bloodstream. The personification of LFC.
Well, all I can say to that is that we are privileged as supporters to have experienced an encore. Klopp is up there with Shanks. I’m sure he’d be embarrassed at that thought. But it’s true. And as time passes it will become truer.
I’m glad we gave him his best moments in football - and not just because he gave us many of ours. The clip of him moving between all his players and staff after the final whistle went in Madrid is my favourite piece of film. The camera tracked him for 6 minutes (ah, those three goals in Istanbul!) and you see the full reality of his achievement dawning as perhaps it only can when you
share an achievement. He is in those six minutes, in turn, serene, honourable, a little dazed, delighted, euphoric and tearful. He hugs everybody he can - defeated opponent as well as delirious victor - and seems to instinctively calibrate each hug according to what is required. And then you begin to realise that he is not hugging anymore. He’s being hugged. The players are taking over, supporting him for a change. And in front of the ecstatic thousands from Liverpool they take this big man - bigger than them all apart from Virg - embrace him in their arms and make him fly. What a moment.
We take history seriously at Liverpool. Some supporters from lesser clubs can scoff at this, but that’s because they think the past is dead. It isn’t. As the American writer William Faulkner once said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past”. And so you see it in banners on the Kop - Elisha Scott, Billy Liddell, Hunt, St John, as well as Shanks and Bob. That's the past breathing among us. All these people are still living, kept vivid not just by the gorgeous flags, but by millions of everyday conversations. Klopp, I’m certain, sensed that.
And therefore he must know that he’ll be with us for ever too. Long after I’ve gone, long after he’s gone, long after you’ve gone.
Jurgen Klopp For Ever.
