DIFFERENT CLASS
Klopp reveals he decided to stay at Anfield because the culture at Liverpool is not the same as other clubs. ‘Things here are set up by the people’
JURGEN KLOPP summed up not only his philosophy but his reasons for continuing in one of the most stressful roles in world sport: “We do things differently here and I love that.”
Many assumed the Liverpool manager would be walking away in 2024 after eight years at the helm of one of football’s biggest clubs, because of the insane demands of such a high-profile job.
Yet for Klopp, there is one overriding reason to stay. “The culture is set by the people and that is easy to love,” he said.
“There are other clubs out there who do it in a different way but here the culture is set up by the people – not by different owners, different coaches, different players. It’s much nicer, I love it, that we are so close together.
“Here it is a must. If we’re here, then we had better enjoy it and that is very easy for me. If that is not us, then we have to adapt to that, not the other way around.”
This is a manager who turned down Manchester United after travelling to speak to their executives because they appeared
“too corporate”.
He knows Liverpool’s owners are far from saints. But among all the biggest clubs in world football, Liverpool are the one who do not have bottomless resources.
And he is not only fine with that, he is proud of it, which explains why he is prepared to stay even longer as he plots to challenge those rivals on the pitch.
Liverpool visit Eddie Howe (left) and his Newcastle side today knowing that, within a couple of years, Saudi Arabia-owned Toon will have spent more than Klopp in all his time at Anfield. “You can’t guarantee success, but we want to offer emotion and that’s possible with the people who support us,” he said.
“We want to deliver excitement, to deliver an idea you really can buy into and understand and you don’t think, ‘They are there and we’re here and we aren’t really connected’. We want to be together with our people – apologies to all the people who always try to stop me on the street because that doesn’t work – we want to really be connected and want to be special as well as a club.”
It is that special feeling which persuaded him to stay for four more years and he says he enjoys doing it without the unlimited spending of the likes of Paris Saintgermain, Manchester City, Newcastle and the rest.
Klopp (right) added: “We have to be more economical because there are no endless resources, that is how it is and that is fine as well.
“Sometimes money was the reason we didn’t get a player. I know from the outside its always, ‘Sign him, sign him, sign him’ but we were always a bit different, we tried it the other way signing players.
“So we have to think so much about transfers.
Will the player fit, will they help us, can we help the player to make the next step and will the player help us to take the next step?
“Sometimes it doesn’t work out and sometimes it does and then the player can have an impact. That’s what we tried to do and will continue to try to do.”