And there was no feud on the table, nor even any Red whine

JURGEN KLOPP recalls how he first greeted Sir Alex Ferguson with a choice expletive.

It was not because of any lingering hostility from the intense rivalry with the “enemy” that Klopp accepts will flavour Liverpool’s approach in the Premier League at Anfield.

Instead, it was his admiration and excitement at meeting a manager he had long admired and with whom he has a “really good relationship”.

Ferguson will be given the VIP treatment by the Liverpool boss when he arrives at Anfield tomorrow because of a friendship that was strengthened when Klopp supported the former United boss’s charity.

“When I met him first it was ‘Alex Ferguson’ – with another word in the middle,” said Klopp. “I was a very young manager at Dortmund and from the first second we had a super conversation.

“I needed 20 minutes to get used to his Scottish accent but then I was in. We had a super chat and from that moment we were in contact.”

That contact extended to a surprise lunch with Ferguson and bookmaker Fred Done, owner of BetFred – along with Ryan Giggs – in Worsley, Manchester. Klopp had put himself forward as a ‘prize’ in an auction at a fund-raising dinner for the NHS, which Ferguson had hosted to say thank you after lifesaving brain surgery two years ago.

Done, a fervent United fan, is thought to have paid £100,000 for the lunch and Klopp insisted he did not feel surrounded by the enemy, despite describing United as precisely that on the pitch.

“It was for Fergie’s charity. Someone bought it to dine with us,” he said. “He was not the former United manager but just a very, very nice guy. It was all good. Ryan Giggs was there as well and Bryan Robson. Surrounded by the enemy? It didn’t seem like that.

“After all, Mr Neville and Mr Carragher can work together and who would have thought that 10 years ago?!”

Klopp says the rivalry will be there tomorrow when United try to end Liverpool’s incredible unbeaten Premier League run and dent their title hopes.

They are the “natural enemy” said Klopp, ahead of an Anfield showdown with the one side to have taken Premier League points off Liverpool this season. The sides drew 1-1 at Old Trafford in October, with Adam Lallana grabbing an equaliser for the table-toppers (inset left, Liverpool stars training yestereday).

But Klopp is not about to start believing he can emulate the Scot’s glory years, even though his team have been compared to the first great one Fergie created. “I don’t read these things,” he said of the comparison.

“I had a similar situation in Dortmund in 2011. The questions were similar and all the stories were so positive. I could nearly walk on water. Whatever comparisons are made I will only think about long after my career is over. It does not affect me and so far it has not affected the boys.”

I needed 20 mins to get used to his Scottish accent but then I was in. We had a super chat