*EXTRA SPECIAL
Klopp admits it won’t be proper title win. It’ll be...
JURGEN KLOPP smiled when the question of an asterisk against the season arose.
His response was typically charismatic. Staring down the rival fans who are desperate to claim this will not be a ‘proper’ title win, he agreed.
For the Liverpool manager, his team deserve an asterisk, should they win the title, because they will have done it in impossibly difficult circumstances – and they will have written history in a truly special campaign.
“I don’t like talking about stuff that has not happened yet. But what people make of it, the people outside [the club], I couldn’t care less.
It’s just for us,” he said.
“But if it happens and we do become champions – which I don’t know yet – and you meet someone who says, ‘yeah, but asterisk’, then we can tell them: An asterisk, rightly so – because it was really difficult and really special.
“So yes, we cannot do a lot of things that we usually can do, but in this specific case at least we can say this is really special… and that’s why we enjoy the little asterisk there.”
Klopp has clearly heard all the banter, has heard all the claims from rival supporters who seem to revel in the thought that Liverpool’s impending title triumph after a 30-year wait would somehow not be authentic.
His dismissal is as brutal as it is funny.
He is untroubled by the claims of those like Gary Neville, who want that little symbol by Liverpool’s name, even admitting to having to look up what the word meant.
“I don’t pay much attention usually, but I have had a lot of time to read and heard a lot – and I had to google the word ‘asterisk’. I only knew the word from the Asterix comics,” he quipped.
“This is the most difficult year and season to become champions. One hundred percent. Whatever it is, it is an interrupted season that has never happened before and whoever will be champions it will be historical because it is a year that we will
never forget. Hopefully it is the only year we ever experience this, so it is historic now more than ever. Give us an asterisk. Yes do it. Because it is the most difficult season ever.”
Klopp revealed that both Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson should be fit to face Everton tomorrow – “they look good, none are ruled out for Sunday” – but Xherdan Shaqiri is not ready to return. Liverpool need two wins to clinch the title.