I’m a Gunner, but Liverpool have my respect

To all football supporters, I am no Liverpool fan. Regular readers of this column will realise I am an Arsenal fan through and through. Proof of this is a conversation I had with one of my ex-wives many, many years ago. “I think you love Arsenal more than you love me,” she wailed during one of our disagreements. “My dear, I replied, I love Liverpool more than I love you!”

However, with Arsenal having virtually no chance of winning the Premier League title (but new manager Unai Emery is on the right track and I am confident we’ll be there or thereabouts in the next few seasons), I find myself quietly rooting for the Reds.

There are a couple of reasons for this.

The first is some of the players who have donned the Liverpool shirt over the years; players who made a real impression on me with their footballing ability and players I secretly wished had instead played for The Gunners.

There was mercurial winger Steve Heighway way back in the 1970s, who played in the same team as one of my favourite goalkeepers, Ray Clemence. Then came Kevin Keegan, still one of the finest midfielders I have had the joy of watching, and another in Kenny Dalglish. Then there was, to my mind, one of the most complete footballers to grace the English game in Steven Gerrard.

Some of their strikers were brilliant – Ian Rush, John Aldridge, Robbie Fowler, John Barnes, Harry Kewell (yes, I know he was Australian, but he was damn good), Michael Owen and, more recently, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah.

But there is another reason I’m willing them to Premier League success this season: manager Jurgen Klopp.

I’ve never met the German, but I feel like I know him. He strikes me as being one of those guys who would be fantastic company over a beer or two; the type of person who loves to shoot the breeze.

I have been so impressed with him in interviews I have seen this season. Unlike sulky Jose Mourinho, Klopp is consistent and invariably finds the positives in any situation (I suppose that is easier when your team top the table, but I fancy he would not change even if that weren’t the case).

He is quite obviously an astute football tactician. In his side’s 5-1 thumping of Arsenal towards the end of last year, he was encouraging and cajoling his players late in the second half when the victory was already in the bag.

Again, after that match there was no gloating (unlike what I have seen from Mourinho) and he was quite dismissive of talk about winning the title. Rightly so, because there is a long way to go yet.

But I have a sneaky feeling this is going to be Liverpool’s year. Or, more accurately, Klopp’s year.

And it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy …