MY MEDAL’S JURS

ball. Maybe not everyone loves LFC but even if you love the other guys you can love football.

“I’ll say it again – it is amazing how much football means to the people of Liverpool.

“I accept there are more important things in life. Of all the nice things that are not

important, I like football the most and that is why I have always wanted to be in it.

“I love the game so much which is why I had this affection for Liverpool. And when it came up, it was an easy decision. I was hoping the people would be really open for a new guy and I was really open for a new challenge and a new club. And from day one, it clicked.

“The passion the people have for this club is exceptional. The way they went through the darkest moments possible – how they deal with it but don’t forget it – is exceptional. “I am sure that is why the status of the manager at this club is different to other clubs.

“I had no idea about that before I came here. People told me about it and I said ‘yeah, we will see.’

“And that’s the way it is.” Such is Klopp’s messianic profile and global fame, the only slight downside is he cannot enjoy life’s routine social pleasures.

“Not being able to live a normal life is the shadow part,” he says. “I don’t like it but I have to accept it (because) my life is too good.

“I am 53, I am healthy, I work for the best club in the world, I earn really a lot of money.

“Life is not perfect but it’s not for anybody so why should it be for me?”

And his own ‘normality’ is a theme Klopp, who replaced Brendan Rodgers at Anfield in October 2015, returns to.

In just under five years he has led the Reds to two Champions League finals and a first Premier League triumph and become an alltime Liverpool great, but returns to the theme of that first Anfield press conference.

“I am still the normal one,” he says and then spells it out. “I. Am. Not. Special.

“I have a few skills and, luckily, they are needed in football, which is something I really love. But that’s all. I am not special. I am not fishing for compliments.

“I think I am a good guy, I think I am a nice guy. That sounds boring but it is the truth.”

Jurgen Klopp, anything but boring.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp’s iconic status on Merseyside is plain to see in all of the impromptu artwork around the city because if people don’t understand how important the squad is to win the championship, then I can’t help them.” Klopp has told players there will be no “Christmas presents” in terms of first-team appearances as “we don’t give them out like sweets”. But he is outraged those who are part of his squad and contributed to the title triumph – the likes of Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Neco Williams, with two appearances each, and keeper Andy Lonergan, on the bench a dozen times – should be denied a medal. He said: “What is this? What is this rule? These boys will get a medal 100 per cent – I will produce it myself, 100 per cent they can have my medal. “If you have zero games you should win a medal – if you’re part of the squad you should get a medal as you train five million times over a year. If you don’t all train at the highest level then you have no chance to win the championship.”