What we did, together with the people, we restored the belief and togetherness
KLOPP TALKS ABOUT HIS REDS LEGACY
JURGEN KLOPP wasn’t uncomfortable with the question but perhaps uneasy with the thought.
It was put to the departing Liverpool boss that one day he may be immortalised alongside the club’s greats with a statue outside Anfield.
“Do I think I need it?” he said. “Definitely not. I am not sure what Bill (Shankly) or all the other guys thought.”
It was quickly put to Klopp that Shankly’s statue was not erected until long after he had died.
“Well then, they have another 40 years to think about that,” he added. The 56-year-old German is now predicting how long he will live.
To be fair, he’s got most of his predictions right on Merseyside since arriving at Liverpool in October 2015.
He said he would turn doubters to believers and deliver a title in four years. A Champions League was won in 2019 before the 30-year wait for a league title was ended in 2020.
A Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, FA Cup and two League Cups would follow.
It is why Klopp will be now spoken in the same breath as Shankly in these parts as he prepares for his final game in charge tomorrow at home to Wolves.
But while he may lap up the emotional farewell, the comparison is another to sit uneasy with him.
“It’s part of folklore,” said Klopp. Then added: “Bill Shankly didn’t do it alone.
“I understand that from the outside point of view, people might see it like that but, as Bill probably did think, alone would have been impossible.
“From his boot room, the guys who supported him in that time they all took over, boom, boom, boom.
“They were all there before but it was all about Bill in the city. It’s all about me, so who spoke about Pep Lijnders?
“Now he goes out and will conquer the world and people will realise, ‘Ah!”
Shankly’s boot room did spawn the careers of more great managers like Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan.
But Klopp’s backroom team will move on – assistant Lijnders will bid to be his own man at Red Bull Salzburg while others will find new jobs.
Yet what Klopp cannot deny he has in common with Shankly is the connection with the people of the city.
Football is certainly a common language in a place where it is red or blue, but one which working-class status and left-wing politics bring people together.
“The people, the city, you couldn’t do what Bill did in each city in the world,” said Klopp.
“You need someone that understands it is the power of unity, the power of togetherness, we give our all, we see what we get for it, we overcome obstacles and difficulties, and Bill was obviously the right man to do that.
“For me it was No.1 choice, for whatever reason, it’s not really explainable. I just thought that is the one I want to have.
“What we did, together with the people, we restored the belief and the togetherness.
“People enjoy winning but fighting for it especially. It is part of our history here that we really get hit hard and get up again.
“It was not a plan but it is how people are here.
“I’m not a socialist but I come from there. I understand life like that. I fitted so well. I didn’t have to change a bit, that was the biggest blessing.”
Klopp feels he has to go now and has put it down to the need for a break. But surely he’s going to miss it – the late winners and the drama?
“It’s my life, so I might miss it,” he said. “But I need to have a look on the other side.”
The red half of Merseyside will miss him.
“The way people in England see it you have to either love Liverpool or hate Liverpool,” he added.
“Obviously it was very easy for me to fall in love with the club and the people. It is a special story. Could it have been more successful? Yes. With me? I don’t know.
“I do not see where we could have done this, or that, and then this or that would not have happened. I am super happy with my time here.”
JURGEN KLOPP ON…
How former Liverpool CEO Ian Ayre got rejected by Klopp at first.
“I think two, three years before, Ian Ayre called me when I was at Dortmund to ask if I was interested.
“In that moment, I thought, ‘Eh?’ Dortmund were flying, blah, blah, blah, maybe champions again and Liverpool? I thought, ‘Nah, no chance’.
“Liverpool was not in a great place, it was not a place you go and say, ‘Yeah, Liverpool is calling, yeah come on, lets go’. That changed three years later.”
On claims FSG didn’t back him enough.
“I think you could buy into it but [people say] ‘they didn’t back him enough’ and stuff like that but I never saw it that way. I don’t know if they could have done more but I don’t think so because we had these discussions and I never had them in public.
“If it would help to invite the public into the discussions I would try but it doesn’t help. If my son asked me for 50 euros and I only had 25 to give, what can I do? Besides just give him the 25. I understood that it was our way, the Liverpool way.”
On Vincent Kompany’s goal against Leicester in 2019 when Liverpool got 97 points but didn’t win the league. “The screamer of Vinny. That ball goes 999 out of 1,000 everywhere in the stadium – and for that night, it looks like for them it is meant to be.
“From time to time, you see and think, ‘Are you really kidding me?’
“I was lying on my sofa like this [straightens his body] and a second later I felt like I had had a stroke. That is the truth. Wow. What can you do when that happens?” On losing the 2022 Champions League final to Real Madrid… “We play that game and we shoot every three minutes on their goal but their keeper has 12 hands – and then they score that goal.
“We talk afterwards about the one mistake where we could have defended that better.
“Could they have defended all the situations where we had the finishes better? Oh definitely. But nobody speaks about it.
“That has nothing to do with our defending, that was that f***er (Thibaut) Courtois. And that was it. We didn’t do anything wrong.”
On Liverpool taking next step under Arne Slot (inset)…
“With new influences. They are important. They are really important. “Our football doesn’t have to change completely but can be justified here and there, players in different positions, the quality is still there, can still develop. “And that is really what I like. It is not an emergency case and you hear that beep, beep, beep and it is close to [pretends to be a life support machine and gives one long] beep.
“It is really healthy, a very vital club with a wonderful training ground, sensational stadium, financially not bad.”
THE impact Jurgen Klopp has had on Liverpool is set in stone.
But will there be a lasting reminder of the German giant cast in bronze outside Anfield?
You have to be something special to deserve a statute at one of the cathedrals of world football.
That privilege has been bestowed on late managers Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, but Sir Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard are still waiting.
But the fact remains that Klopp deserves to join those names above on the list of Merseyside royalty.
When he was appointed manager in October 2015 he had one mission – to make Liverpool champions again.
And he did, in 2020, toppling the great Pep Guardiola and Manchester City to take the title by 18 points after only losing three games all season.
He put Liverpool back on their perch for the first time in three decades – and right there and then was guaranteed the freedom of the city.
The seismic triumph came just 12 months after Klopp had beaten Tottenham to conquer Europe, winning Liverpool’s sixth European Cup. He was walking on water.
To some people, Klopp could float across the River Mersey without getting his feet wet.
But here’s the difficult part.
When Klopp announced he was leaving Liverpool earlier this season, it drew comparisons to when Sir Alex Ferguson announced his time at Manchester United was up.
Replacing him will be really tough, for sure, but not in the same league as what David Moyes had to do in filling Fergie’s humongous shoes at Old Trafford back in 2013.
Klopp has won the two biggest trophies and eight in total.
Which is a heck of an achievement, not least because he’s spent the majority of his time at Anfield locking horns with Guardiola – the greatest manager of them all.
But will Klopp leave a dynasty behind him?
No. Not even close. Dynasties belong to those who create teams which rule for years in succession, like Fergie did and Guardiola is now doing in Manchester. Fergie rebuilt three teams and won 13 league titles, while Guardiola is on the cusp of a historic fourth Premier League crown on the spin.
Klopp, on the other hand, built one title-winning side. Replacing him will be a tough job, but replacing Fergie was the impossible one.
Harsh perhaps, but true.
But it’s also true of Klopp that his legend wasn’t just built on silverware, but also on the fact he had the qualities to become part of the fabric of the club and its people.
He was the figurehead who gave the club back its pride. For 12 months, he made Liverpool the best team on the planet once again.
He created ‘heavy metal’ football, to become so interwoven with Liverpool’s culture and beliefs he earned comparisons to those other favourite sons of the city, ‘The Beatles.’
To the tune of one of the Beatles’ many legendary songs, Liverpool supporters adopted new lyrics in tribute to Klopp.
“I’m so glad Jurgen is a Red, I’m so glad he delivered what he said, I’m in love with him and I feel fine.”
That love will be unconditional and eternal, because he was one of them. He made sure those millions of Liverpool supporters around the globe continued to ‘Never Walk Alone.’
He was the underdog who took on Guardiola and his state-owned giants and sometimes won. A typhoon of testosterone and teeth who led Liverpool out of domestic darkness.
Klopp beat his chest in front of the Kop. He became so much more than a football coach who knew how to take the fight to the richer superpowers.
He lived on a diet of emotion, energy and passion – and it made him one of the most endearing characters English football has had the privilege of seeing.
Klopp will be badly missed, but never ever forgotten.