Liverpool can compete with the super rich clubs like Manchester City because of their fans.
That is the verdict of manager Jurgen Klopp, who says that money has nothing to do with his amazing success, but the sheer history and emotional tradition of the fanbase absolutely does. The Reds have been neck and neck with City over the past four years, just one point separating the two clubs over that time, in an epic contest that is one of the greatest and most intense in history.
Yet the odds have always been stacked against Klopp, given he has a net spend of less than a quarter of Pep Guardiola, and a wage bill significantly less. But he argued there are more things than money when it comes to winning: “I don't understand why it depends on money. We have a special group of players here.
“And again, and not because people expect me to say it, but it only makes a real difference if you are as connected as we are with our fans. That is really special. So you come here, players after two months you think: 'oh my God, it is really different here'.
“And that is because the club is what it is. It is definitely one of the best in the world without us playing, even. Then we play a bit more football and it makes a lot of sense that we fit a bit better with our fanbase."
Klopp has always shunned the big money advances of the world’s richest clubs in his career, revealing on different occasions he turned down both Bayern Munich and Manchester United because they felt too corporate. Instead, he has chosen clubs who are more rooted in their community, and have a stronger emotional - and historic - connection with their supporters.
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For him, achieving success with those clubs, and with their incredible fans, means far more than merely buying your way to honours. And he used a story from his first job in management, at German club Mainz, to suggest it is the fans who inspire glory.
"The biggest defeats in my life have led to the biggest successes in my life, wherever I was. Whether it was Mainz, [Borussia] Dortmund or whatever, it's a little bit like this. Even if we don't win the league or Champions League final, have a party afterwards…I learned that really at Mainz. We didn't get promoted and we arrived back [thinking] it'd be really sad but we had 20,000 people waiting for us!
“We had to go on stage the day after we lost our dream of going to the Bundesliga. That was the moment we realised it was OK, and if they think it was fine then we can go from here. so these kinds of things, the response [of fans] is really important and whatever happens on Sunday (in the title race we will not stop. We will not stop trying.
Yes, we have the best opponent in world football, which is a bit of a shame, but they have us in their neck, which is not too cool as well. So let's see."
