Klopp quitting while at the top is a lesson for business leaders
Look around the crowd at a football game. They are predominantly male, a mixed bunch, drawn from a variety of ages and backgrounds.
A large proportion hail from the world of commerce, from business. Some, from the top. It is evident in their patter, in their dress. In London, a substantial amount will work in the City.
While they follow the ebb and flow of the game, and applaud and rage, they do not stop to think how what they are witnessing could be applied to their day jobs. They should.
Watching the players, not for their footballing skills but for their mental attributes, and how the manager interacts with them, would teach lessons in leadership, fortitude and resilience.
A few years ago, I went to a “Q&A evening” with a Premier League manager. His team were doing OK, they were winning most of the time. But every now and then they would suffer a surprising defeat. A side they would be expected to beat would come from nowhere and apply a thumping.
Asked what was wrong, the boss did not hesitate. “Easy, we lack a leader on the pitch.”
That person, he said, would not be the most skilful or the sharpest goalscorer or the most stubborn defender – although they could be any of those and more. No, they had to display inner steel, they needed to show resolve, discipline and determination when it mattered – and crucially those qualities had to rub off on others.
It is what defines the great managers. Much has been written about Jurgen Klopp these past few days, since his shock announcement that he would be quitting Liverpool at the end of this season.
Plenty has focused on his natural ebullience, his warmth and good humour, his obvious passion – for Liverpool, the club and the city – and his ability to get on with the highest
and lowliest of folk. There is one video of Klopp that never fails to inspire – it is of him dancing on tables in a bar with supporters after a victory, hugging and jigging, and belting out Liverpool anthems.
You could be forgiven for supposing that is Klopp, that is all there is, the fist-pumping and running along the touchline. In truth, he is happiest away from the hurly-burly. “My car knows only one way – home to here, here to home.”
And he is thinking constantly,
about the assets at his disposal and how to get the best out of them, not for now, but ahead. Not for nothing did he refer to his Champions League-winning team and the first Liverpool side in an era to triumph in the most important tournament after so many victories before, as “mentality monsters”.
It was Klopp who coached the lesser known Andrew Robertson to dominate the great Lionel Messi, the night Liverpool came back from a 3-0 first-leg defeat to humble the mighty
Barcelona 4-3 in the Champions League semi-final.
At Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson was the same. The Glaswegian extracted stellar performances from who, within football, was labelled as the “difficult-to-manage” Eric Cantona. The Frenchman scored 71 goals in 177 appearances, winning four Premier League titles and two FA Cups.
Ferguson’s tactic was not to try to restrict him as others had done, but to show faith in him, to trust and believe in him. Cantona was allowed free rein, to roam around the pitch, to strut, always with his collar up, to intervene when it suited him, to do his own thing.
He was short-tempered, but Ferguson made no attempt to curb that, believing the emotion made him the player he was. So when Cantona launched a kung fu kick against an opposition supporter, and the football establishment erupted, Ferguson stood by his player.
Klopp knew how to bring on youths. “I am not saying I am the best manager in the world, but I’m quite good and I am one of those really interested in structure. We are not marionettes, we cannot be thrown away each day.
“If you do not change the people, without solving the problems, then the next person will have the same problems. Work on solutions, work on the future. That’s what we do.”
It was at those meetings, to discuss the future, that Klopp realised he was not leading them, that he was asking himself what the future lay for him and where he would be. That was when he knew it was time to go.
It is the hardest decision of all, stepping down while at the top. But in many ways it is the shrewdest. History is littered with those who did not, who stayed on too long. Those running businesses, take note.