Timm Klose is claiming he talks too much. The Swiss defender is also being modest. Charmingly so.
“I should talk less! I love to talk,” he said. “I have that from my mum and dad. I can’t change. You either talk or you don’t. I could sit down with you and talk for an hour and you go, ‘ah man, I don’t want to talk to him anymore!’”
Granted, we only have an 18-minute Zoom call as evidence, but based on that alone, we’d happily take Klose up on the offer.
Bristol City’s newest recruit makes for engaging and entertaining company and you can see almost instantly how he would be able to enrapture a dressing room, especially one littered with inexperience and lacking in too many obvious leaders.
Klose’s arrival in BS3 is one of those happy accidents, although that adjective isn’t wholly appropriate given the circumstances at which the 33-year-old signed a contract until the end of the season.
Nathan Baker’s second concussion of the season at the end of November, sustained at Bramall Lane against Sheffield United, and the expectation that the 30-year-old is unlikely to play again this season left a gaping hole to the left of Nigel Pearson’s preferred three-man defence.
Rob Atkinson’s fluctuating form coupled with the feeling that the 23-year-old is best in an orthodox back-four and a Cam Pring experiment that never quite properly benefitted either party, forced the Robins into the market with a specific need but no money to spend.
How they landed on Klose could prove one of those twists of fate, which gives credence to the existence of some kind of greater footballing power choosing to smile on south Bristol.
He has only played three matches for the Robins, and they’ve conceded six goals in the process, but he’s had an undeniable impact on the team and those around him with the overriding feeling that if - and it’s a crucial caveat that has governed a number of signings under Pearson - he can stay fit for a healthy proportion of the remaining 16 games of the season, City will finish the campaign with a considerably stronger defence than they began 2022.
Ashton Gate enjoyed their first viewing of the elegant centre-back in action on Wednesday night as he delivered an outstanding first-half performance, full of anticipation and nous but also with those traditional defensive delights of aggression and, to coin a Curtis Fleming favourite, bloody-mindedness.
Tom Ince did kind of get his own back late in the game when he bounced off the Swiss to earn a penalty, but prior to that as Klose went down the tunnel at half-time, it was a surprise not to see the Reading winger stuck inside a newly-fashioned pocket in his shorts.
As well as his acumen in restricting the Royals, before that uncomfortable final 16 minutes at the end of the game, what stood out was his communication; always in the ear of his teammates, directing traffic, encouraging and almost orchestrating the shape of the team at the back.
When Han-Noah Massengo left the field injured after 17 minutes, it was Klose who spoke to the 20-year-old as he limped off, “I said, listen, don’t worry, we’ve got this for you”. When an own goal put City 2-0 up, there was Klose sprinting to Antoine Semenyo, who played the penultimate pass in the move to Cam Pring, to embrace and congratulate the 22-year-old while delivering further words of wisdom.
“If I’m in a team I want to make sure everyone is feeling part of a group. If you stick together you can achieve everything,” Klose adds. “At Norwich I always said, we all have to row together in the same direction in the boat and we are doing it (here) and that is the most important thing.”
We are only three games deep here but it’s not outrageous to suggest that those elements alone have been missing from a City team rich in talent and potential, but perhaps lacking obvious on-field guidance, especially with Matty James and Andy King sidelined.
We perhaps shouldn’t get too carried away here because considerable work is still to be done in improving City’s defensive record - 22nd for goals against (55), shots conceded per game (14.1) and expected goals against per 90 (1.62) - but it’s impressive in itself that Klose is in a position to try and do so.
Having not played a competitive fixture since last May with FC Basel in the Swiss Super League, his chances of finding a new club after being released by Norwich City appeared to dim due to his advancing years and a knee injury that had plagued his final few years with the Canaries.
That Klose has started three Championship games, playing 90 minutes in each, in the space of 11 days with only a handful of Under-23 fixtures in Switzerland, as Basel allowed him to continue training with them, is testament to his remarkable fitness now, but also the dedication he’s put into preparing his body behind the scenes.
“I look after myself quite well now,” Klose says. “I would say when I was younger I didn’t do that. Obviously, you learn with experience. In my head, I’m younger than my body and that keeps me going.
“If you look at different teams, with their centre-backs, you will always find an ‘old guy’ playing and still performing well; Phil Jagielka does an unbelievable job and there are other players out there that are just great examples for what you can achieve if you look after yourself.”
Central to looking after his physical state has been his conversion to a vegan diet six years ago, following the advice of, as fate would have it given Sunday’s opponents, Swansea City manager and former Canaries captain Russell Martin.
It’s worth pointing out that the last veteran free agent centre-back City signed following an injury crisis at the end of a transfer window also showed a commitment to a plant-based diet in the latter years of his career, namely Ashley Williams.
But as well as being careful over what goes into his body, Klose has also looked at training and conditioning techniques beyond just daily sessions with Basel.
“Even when I played for FC Basel, I still had some issues with my knee and I knew there were some things not right with my body,” he explains.
“That’s why I went to do special training with my personal trainer; kickboxing, boxing on the side. It’s mobility, especially kickboxing, you can really dig in with the feet and with your legs and that makes the knee a bit stronger.
“We were checking out some stability stuff. I took someone from Basel and we went to look at sprinting shapes and how I can make sure that I’m staying mobile.
“The most important thing for me was that FC Basel gave me the chance to train with the team because that kept me in that loop. It’s hard sometimes to get out of the business, to get straight in because you don’t have that group around you all the time.”
Although he could only be here for a matter of months, Klose is very much making the most of his time in Bristol.
He's been enthused by the young talent at the club, "they help keep me young", also noting that he's delighted he has Semenyo on his side, rather than having to mark January's Championship Player of the Month.
He's enjoyed walks around the city, with his dog Pip, particularly taken with spotting his first Banksy, the time-honoured ‘Well Hung Lover’ off Park Street and he’s looking forward to exploring this corner of the world a little more now he has an apartment sorted in the city centre.
“I went to see a bit of Clifton, I wanted to go to Cotham; all these kinds of areas where you can walk around with your dog and spend some time with nature and breathe in some air,” he says.
“It’s just great to see different cities, different cultures, and learn from the people. It’s a really open city, I think we have 100,000 students, they speak all (different) languages. I love learning new things and every city is a new opportunity.”
That sense of opportunity could prove mutually beneficial to both player and club alike, hopefully for a period of time beyond just this season.
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