It would go down as one of Jürgen Klopp’s most famous lines and it served to project him to a wider and increasingly captivated audience. It was November 2013 and the spotlight was on the superstar Borussia Dortmund manager, who had his admirers everywhere but especially in England.
Manchester City and Chelsea had wanted him in the summer of that year and now he was preparing to host Arsenal, another Premier League club who had him on their radar, in a Champions League group game. Many Arsenal supporters considered Klopp as the ideal successor to Arsène Wenger which, as an aside, reminds us of the drawn-out nature of the latter’s endgame. The Frenchman would not depart until 2018.
There were certain similarities between the two; the career paths, the promotion of young players, the entertaining styles, the approaches to squad building. Klopp did not see it. “He likes having the ball, playing football, passes … it’s like an orchestra,” he said, pretending to play the violin. “But it’s a silent song, yeah? I like heavy metal.”
Klopp was holding court with a handful of English journalists and they all remember every detail. Vividly. Klopp gets you like this. The magnetism, the big laugh, the force of his presence and personality. The energy, which can be a little zany. Or explosive.
One of the main things about Klopp, as with all of the greats, is how he finesses connections. At the time, it felt inevitable that the Premier League would be his next destination at some point, even if he insisted that nothing could happen until 2018 as he had just extended his Dortmund contract until then. On the other hand, life can always get in the way.
Manchester United were keeping an eye on him. The retiring Sir Alex Ferguson had seen him at Wembley at the end of the previous season after Klopp’s team lost to Bayern Munich in the Champions League final and he made a point of congratulating him on how he was doing. But when it was the moment for Klopp to make his move in 2015, there was one destination that felt right; the fit with Liverpool almost impossibly perfect.
Klopp has taken his place in the pantheon of Premier League managerial legends – established alongside Ferguson and Wenger, Pep Guardiola and José Mourinho. In the wake of his bombshell announcement on Friday that he is running on fumes, nearing the limits of his energy which means that he absolutely must step down at the end of the season, there have been so many eulogies that it recalls a comment from Wenger after he finally left Arsenal. “I don’t need to die any more because I know what it’s like,” he said.
The retrospective focus on Klopp’s extraordinary nine years at Liverpool has the capacity to hinder the generation of momentum as he seeks to go out with a bang. It is something he must combat. Then again, Klopp knows only one way – to fight every day, giving everything.
The 56-year-old has won all of the majors at Liverpool, although surely not in the volumes he would have wanted. Ferguson’s principal regret at United was that he collected only two European Cups. Klopp would have had three at Liverpool but for the pair of final defeats against Real Madrid. As for Klopp’s league title haul, it has been his misfortune to have run into Guardiola’s City machine. Liverpool’s return of 97 and 92 points in 2019 and 2022 respectively would have been enough for glory at virtually any other time.
Klopp intends to add to the seven major honours he has won with Liverpool before he bows out and he has the team fighting on all three domestic fronts – plus the Europa League. In the show-us-your-medals in English football stakes, he trails Ferguson, who finished with an astonishing 38, Wenger (17), Guardiola (16 and counting) and Mourinho (11).
The statistics show that Klopp has the third-best points-per-game record in Premier League history – behind Guardiola and Ferguson, in that order; in front of Mourinho and Wenger. His win percentage of 60.7 in all competitions is higher than any other Liverpool manager’s. But it is with regard to more intangible matters where Klopp scores so heavily.
There is the style of play, the intensity, which has generated such buy-in from the Liverpool crowd. For most of the time, his team have been competitive and enjoyable to watch, and that should never be taken for granted. His approach to pressing has reconditioned the English game.
Above all, though, we come back to the connection. It is the reason why Klopp is so revered in the red half of Liverpool and respected, however grudgingly, by fans elsewhere. Do the latter find his touchline meltdowns annoying? Yes. Would they want that kind of heart-on-sleeve passion in their dug-out? Also, yes.
With Klopp, it has not only been about him imposing himself on his club, although that is plainly a factor. It is how he has tapped into the mentality of the wider community, the city of Liverpool, to harness a powerful sense of identity and togetherness.
“Being an honourable scouser is probably the best thing I could ever have achieved in my life – it’s absolutely outstanding,” Klopp said on Friday. “The way these people deal with difficulties is a role model for me. I learned so much here.”
Klopp gets Liverpool, mainly because his values chime with those of the city. An incurable romantic, he likes to paint his teams as the plucky, hard-working outsiders up against those with more money. He did it at Dortmund with Bayern. And for Bayern then, read City now. It is a move that usually plays well and it has underscored the restoration of Liverpool’s aura of confidence.
When Klopp made his announcement that he would be stepping aside because he thought his “energy level was endless and now it is not”, there was the temptation to look for an alternative explanation, a more controversial or conspiratorial one. Yet his story has no holes. It is authentic, consistent.
Rewind to Wednesday night at Fulham, after Klopp’s team advanced to the Carabao Cup final. The Liverpool support had unfurled a banner which read: “Imagine being us.” So, what was it like? “There are worse situations, definitely,” Klopp replied. But then he was straight into the stress of a looming fixture pile-up. “Imagine being us and having to play all the games we have to play,” he said. “That’s not as enjoyable as watching them.”
Wenger used to say: “Physically, you have to be an animal in this job.” It always gets you at one stage or the other. Guardiola needed a year out after Barcelona in 2012.
The question that continues to bear the real scrutiny concerns why Klopp has told the world now. The idea is to give Liverpool all the time and clarity they need to plan ahead but he has certainly gone early with the news. Klopp does not want the remaining matches of Liverpool’s season to be about him. So, all the best with that, Jürgen. The more realistic hope, perhaps, is that the players are galvanised by this longest of goodbyes.
The obvious parallel is to Ferguson’s announcement in May 2001 that the following season would be his last at United. It was a mistake, the Scot later admitting: “A lot of the players had put their tools away.” He would, of course, make a U-turn in the January and stay until 2013. When Ferguson called it a day for good, it was with an abrupt announcement with just two games of the season to go. It is pointless looking at Mourinho’s Premier League departures because he was never in control of them but with Wenger, he also made a sudden announcement, albeit with seven matches of 2017-18 to play. Klopp’s farewell tour begins on Sunday at Anfield against Norwich in the FA Cup. It will be loud and emotional. Just how he likes it.
