Harry’s rated 50-50
JURGEN WILL KOP IT FROM OLD PAL
DAVID WAGNER has warned best mate Jurgen Klopp to rein in his touchline antics tomorrow – or risk a few jibes about the hattrick Huddersfield’s boss scored against him.
Liverpool’s manager has been close to Wagner since they were team-mates at German side Mainz in the 1990s. Indeed, Klopp asked Wagner to be his best man when he got married for the second time in 2005, and he is also godfather to the Huddersfield head coach’s youngest daughter Lynn. Wagner admits it will be strange for them to be in opposing technical areas tomorrow as the Terriers head to Anfield in the Premier League. But they did face each other in their playing days – with Wagner scoring three as Gutersloh beat Mainz 6-1 in a German second division match. The Huddersfield boss has hinted he may just bring that up if Klopp starts getting too animated during tomorrow’s game.
Lively
“I don’t mention the hat-trick to him,” said Wagner. “OK, maybe if he flies too high, then, I will. “Was he to blame for any of my goals? No, it was only my quality. He had done everything right. “I think I am less lively on the touchline, maybe. I know that everything that happens over this 90 minutes between him and me, or between us and the referee, us and the players, this is forgotten after the game. “I had a lot of arguments with him when we played together in the team, when we were together as room-mates, and this is always forgotten afterwards.” Klopp has told a story that Wagner softened him up for that meeting nearly 20 years ago by inviting him over for dinner the night before the game. “I remember he came to my house the night before the game,” added Wagner. “There was certainly food, but I can’t remember if there was beer.” Wagner claims that Klopp was a surprisingly quiet roommate during their Mainz days – largely because he had a young son, Marc, by his first wife, and needed his sleep. ® However, they did have lively talks from time to time over Klopp’s smoking habit, something that the Liverpool boss has still not kicked.
Wagner said: “He was pretty quiet because he had a child, so he liked to sleep, like I did.
“Unfortunately he was a smoker. That was not easy at the beginning, so I convinced him he was only allowed to smoke in the toilet, not in the room, and he did what I said. Unfortunately he still smokes.
“This was more or less the biggest discussion we always had.
“It was perfect because he, more or less, had the same rhythm that I had as a person, so we had hunger at the same time, we were thirsty at the same time and we went to bed and stood up at the same time.”
Wagner was the reserve-team boss at Borussia Dortmund when Klopp was in charge of the senior side.
But he insists there was never any possibility of him joining the coaching staff at Anfield, instead choosing Huddersfield in November 2015.
“Not for one second,” he said. “This is the truth. I understand the question, and why those thoughts are there, but this was not discussed.
“To be honest, he didn’t ask me and so it was something I never had to decide.
“I knew that, when I left Dortmund, it was the right moment to leave the club. I knew that I should really join the perfect football club for me, and I joined Huddersfield, but I felt it was time to leave Dortmund’s second team at that stage.
“This was the best opportunity, when I got the phone call from Huddersfield.” already brought into doubt his participation in Wednesday’s Champions League showdown with Real Madrid.
Kane was left out of Spurs’ squad for Wednesday night’s 3-2 Carabao Cup defeat to West Ham.
The England star picked up the injury in the 4-1 hammering of Liverpool last Sunday, where Kane took his league tally to eight with a brace.
Asked whether Kane would return to his starting line-up, Pochettino said: “We’ll see, we’ll see.
“We need to assess the team because we were forced to rotate for different reasons and we’ll see what happens in the next few days.”
Pochettino has also revealed he’s had to treat Dele Alli with kid gloves after he landed three new contracts in a year.
“Dele, when he first arrived at MK Dons, had a burning need to prove his worth and showed that in every training session, constantly putting his body on the line,” revealed Pochettino in a new book, Brave New World.
“But now, a year on, Dele has signed three new contracts, each with a wage hike. It’s normal for them to believe, and their entourage to tell them, that their position in the hierarchy has changed.
“A year ago, you could yell at Dele during a session, but now you necessarily have to strike a different tone.”