Jurgen’s The Normal One and Liverpool have pulled off a coup with new deal
YOU know when Jurgen Klopp said he is the “normal one”? Well, he is – and it’s his greatest quality.
I’ve been lucky enough to see him up close, I was at the Champions League final victory party in Madrid in June with my son, and he’s just such a decent guy.
He was with his family, having a beer and a laugh, not talking about football, just relaxing and enjoying the moment.
He’s got time for people. There’s no airs and graces, no edge to him.
The way you saw him on the bus parading the trophy with those beers, well, that’s him.
A fantastic manager, no doubt up there as one of the best in the world, but someone who can let his hair down, be with people and just chat about anything. Not just normal… but f ****** normal!
I am fortunate enough to mix with these people away from football and, with Jurgen, you show him the respect of not talking about football. Yet when he’s on that, when he’s working, you
can tell he’s working with everything he’s got. And that’s why it is so huge that he’s signed a new contract with Liverpool.
I think everyone assumed he would do seven years and then take a break in 2022. So to get him for another two years after that is massive.
It gives everyone a lift, the fans, of course, everyone around the club and I can tell you the players too. They see him like I do - he’s just normal with them too.
I’ve seen him give them b **** ckings, he can lose his rag in training. But he loves them too – all of his players – he loves it when they click and get it.
What they see is someone the same as them – someone with real ambition, belief and passion.
You don’t get to play for Liverpool without ambition, and, when they see it matched and outstripped by their manager, it makes them give more.
It’s big for many reasons.
For a start, what a season to get such a lift in. It’s like the club signing one of the best players in the world – because he’s right up there at the very top.
He is also a competitor. He inherited a pretty poor team at Anfield – there are only a handful of them left.
But he got to two finals in his first season, in the top four in the second, then a Champions League final. Every year they get better and there’s no sign of it stopping. That’s a real competitor. The two extra years, though, are a massive bonus for the club because it offers continuity. This team is so exciting, there’s a reason they’re huge favourites for the title.
Yet there will come a time when it needs to be refreshed and rebuilt a little. They’re all at peak age – or heading towards their peak – but, in two or three years’ time, some will move on.
To have Klopp overseeing that will mean there’s no chance of handing over like Sir Alex Ferguson did – an ageing team that needed some surgery.
He has kids he’s bought who will come through and you can see from the signing of Takumi Minamino, Liverpool are always planning, looking ahead. Klopp hasn’t signed on for longer for that reason though. He’s done it because he has the balls to back himself. He knows he has a fabulous team, that they can get better and he wants to take them further.
You can tell he loves his job. He’ll want to win the title this season and I know for sure that will be the target, even ahead of the Champions League.
But he’ll want that to be the start, he’ll want more.
Klopp has won without ever being at the biggest club in his league or spending massive amounts of money. Now he’s at a club who back him, who will buy into him. He will believe it’s just the start.