Jurgen Klopp’s influence on Chelsea cannot be understated ahead of Liverpool’s Carabao Cup showdown with the Blues.
When time was called on Frank Lampard’s short-lived Stamford Bridge reign, the decision was absolutely to go German.
Ralf Rangnick and Julian Nagelsmann were the other names on Roman Abramovich’s three-man wanted list, with Thomas Tuchel’s positioning on it up for debate.
Chelsea’s owner had seen how Klopp had broken Pep Guardiola’s stranglehold on the Premier League and wanted a piece of that action.
Some weeks before Lampard was shown the door last January, whispers were already circulating that a “German speaker” was wanted.
That was widely interpreted as a desire to find a manager capable of getting the best out of expensive recruits Kai Havertz and Timo Werner — but it was more a case of the language of German football and the coaching revolution from that part of the world.
The Blues got their man and their reward, in the form of last season’s Champions League triumph, but as Tuchel and Klopp prepare to go head-to-head in Sunday’s Carabao Cup Final, their respective roles feel very different.
Liverpool are the embodiment of their manager. For all the success of their much-heralded transfer committee, he is the overarching identity of the club in the manner of a Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger of old, Guardiola at Manchester City now.
He has earned that status by restoring them to one of the world’s elite clubs and shaking them from a 30-year slumber that felt terminal.
Liverpool have been rewarded for their faith in a project that took four years to yield its first trophy.
Tuchel could deliver his fourth in the space of 13 months with victory on Sunday, but what hope does he have of ever enjoying the level of control and security that his countryman holds?
Perhaps the real question is whether Chelsea can hope to win a Premier League title in the era of Guardiola and Klopp without the long-term planning of City and Liverpool?
Since they were last champions, under Antonio Conte in 2017, Chelsea have finished a combined 108 points behind the title-winners and no higher than third.
The club has its own way of operating, we are repeatedly told, and the current European and world champions continue to rack up the trophies. But is it enough to secure Premier League supremacy in its current guise?
The counter argument is that for all of Klopp’s control at Anfield, he has presided over just one domestic title with one of the finest teams ever assembled in English football. By the end of this season that could be one in his seven years in charge.
Chelsea’s record is the same over that period, while Jose Mourinho’s side were crowned champions in the 2014-15 campaign.
There is also the inherent danger of going down the manager as messiah route, as experienced by Manchester United and Arsenal post Ferguson and Wenger respectively.
How City and Liverpool cope with the eventual departures of Guardiola and Klopp remains to be seen. It could be traumatic. The constant change at Chelsea has insulated them from such issues, but it could also be holding them back.
Had Conte stayed beyond 2018 and been given the players he wanted in the transfer market — namely Virgil van Dijk and Romelu Lukaku — would City have been allowed to dominate in the manner they have over the past five years? Guardiola and Klopp are the overwhelming arguments for long-term planning around one manager.
Chelsea are the strongest argument against, yet they are set to surpass their longest run without the title since Abramovich took ownership in June 2003.
In Tuchel, Chelsea have a manager to build a future around.
In that sense, the hire-and-fire policy is not working. Going from Conte to Maurizio Sarri to Lampard to Tuchel is hardly getting them closer to a return to the summit of English football.
The gap to City right now is 13 points.
When assessing Chelsea’s shortcomings, the manager is the least of them. It is a case of questioning how he could be better served by his club, rather than the other way around.
It is also hard to think of a manager — Guardiola and Klopp aside — better placed to end Chelsea’s title wait. In Tuchel, they have a manager to build a future around.
That is recognised by Abramovich, who is prepared to back him heavily in the market this summer, though that is hardly a departure for the Russian, who has kept a steady influx of superstar players rolling in at Stamford Bridge.
More meaningful backing comes in the form of the time to create something in his own image without the fear of the plug being pulled at any moment.
That is the luxury his opposite number at Wembley on Sunday has been afforded and, win or lose, Liverpool’s faith in Klopp will not be shaken.
For Tuchel, meanwhile, it feels like he needs to keep ticking off the trophies just to get the chance of another shot at the big one.
