Jürgen Klopp — he delivered what he said
There could be no clearer illustration of what Jürgen Klopp has come to mean to Liverpool supporters than the fact that — within a few minutes of the announcement of his departure — video clips of the fans’ reaction when Bill Shankly announced his resignation back in 1974 were suddenly all over social media.
In those days, the people being caught on camera had no idea Shankly had quit until the reporter told them, and their utter bewilderment and disbelief — the sense that you were watching as the bottom dropped out of someone’s world live on TV — was in perfect step with how we all felt. Their faces mirrored our emotions. Are you kidding? I don’t believe it.
Shankly once said that football was not “a matter of life and death. It’s more important than that.” It’s a quote that is often misunderstood, but not by Klopp. In his message to supporters on March 13, 2020 — the day that COVID-19 shut down the Premier League — Klopp revealed his own version, saying that football is “the most important of the least important things.”
Football is not a life or death endeavour — but it is one of the things that can make life worth living. Klopp, like Shankly, understands that in his bones. At its best, football is life — it creates community across divides, generates friendships and common purpose. Being among fellow fans watching your team can be a transporting experience, making you feel alive and connected with the people around you in the same way a concert can — perhaps the only comparable experience.
Even living so far away, here on the west coast of Canada, Klopp has been responsible for some of the most incredible nights of my life. Except they weren’t nights, they were mornings — impossible moments exploding out of early starts, crawling to the bus stop before sunrise, sipping coffee to wake up before ordering beers before the clock had struck 9 am. Incredible comebacks, title wins and drama, all celebrated with friends in a blur of emotion — followed by a sense of disbelief as we step squinting back into the midday sun.
Klopp’s football romanticism, his demeanour on the touchline, his constant demand that the crowd play their part as much of the team, all comes from his fervent love of the game, not just because of what it is on the field, but what it can stir in the hearts of people watching. He is an incredible coach who drills formidable teams wherever he goes — but he knows none of that matters if it is not creating an experience that moves people. For him football is more than results and performances. It is about a feeling. About what watching a team together can mean, how it can add to your life and make it better in some way. He wants the emotion, the drama and the romance. And what he certainly doesn’t want is cynicism.
Cynicism was rife when he walked into Liverpool. After a close run to the title that collapsed in the final weeks of the 2013/14 season, Brendan Rodgers’ following season was by all measures a disaster. The team had become a shadow of itself — and Anfield was also quickly becoming the worst of itself, a nest of negativity split between people who refused to give up on what they’d seen 12 months earlier and those who were sick of the sight of Rodgers. Rodgers limped on, but by October 2015 his position was untenable. FSG were under huge pressure, too. The Gillett/Hicks era was still fresh in fans’ minds, recent signings had almost all been a complete failure, and they needed to show they still had the best interests of the club at heart. And, at the time, there was no-one else they could have brought in who would have quieted the doubters quite so emphatically as Jürgen Klopp.
Klopp knew what he was walking into, and straight away he uttered the now oft-repeated phrase about turning from “doubters into believers”. Liverpool was not a team that believed in itself — and for Klopp that needed to change first. It couldn’t wait for the team to start winning things again — because that would never happen on its own. Winning is a product of collective belief — and in Klopp’s understanding of football, that collective includes the supporters. Klopp was urging people to put away their cynicism — and to allow themselves to dream again. To give football the chance to make them happy again.
There are two moments, separated by three and a half years, that illustrate just what I am talking about. In 2015, Klopp was ridiculed in many quarters for asking his entire team to join hands and salute the Kop after an injury time equalizer from Divock Origi gave Liverpool a 2–2 home draw against West Brom, putting them 9th in the Premier League table. On the surface it was easy to see why it became the target of such opposition mirth. And plenty of us Liverpool fans cringed when it happened, as much as we wanted to buy into the reasons that Klopp gave. Cynicism is a hard habit to shake.
But, while the outside world saw it as Liverpool celebrating a draw, the truth was that Klopp was making a point to the crowd: you’re in this too. A month earlier, Liverpool had slumped to a 2–1 home defeat to Crystal Palace, and after the game Klopp said he had “felt alone” when he saw hundreds of supporters leave the ground after Palace’s 82nd minute winner. This time they had stayed and Liverpool had found a late goal. Belief is a collective responsibility.
On May 7, 2019, the team was again lined up in front of the Kop, as the crowd serenaded them in the aftermath of that incredible 4–0 comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League semi final. Klopp was there in the middle, eyes beaming as everything he believed football could do came true — again. Here in Vancouver we were there in spirit too, tears in our eyes, bellowing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to a team that had made cynicism and doubt long forgotten afflictions. This was a collective faith stretched across the world, connected and created by this most incredible of leaders. And it was supporters’ turn to say their thanks, and to cement the restored symbiotic relationship between the Liverpool team and their home crowd — after witnessing what will surely go down as the greatest of great nights in the Klopp era.
Klopp often talks about how football creates memories, but he also knows that the best memories are created by winning. And from that point on, within 14 months the team had won the Champions League, the European Super Cup, the Club World Cup and Premier League. Then, two years later, the FA Cup and League Cup were added in a campaign that fell just two games short of an incredible quadruple. His peak Liverpool were a phenomenal football machine, the only one that ever came consistently close to matching Manchester City’s ridiculous standards under Pep Guardiola, and who would have dominated the decade but for the record breakers in sky blue. Pep himself recently admitted that a piece of Manchester City would be leaving along with Jürgen Klopp — his “best ever rival” who had driven him to heights he perhaps would never otherwise have reached.
Klopp leaves a Liverpool team in rude health for whoever his successor is. A first team squad with proven winners, yet with a young average age and a new midfield that has gelled far quicker than anyone could have reasonably expected. But on top of that, a seemingly endless supply of outstanding youngsters are now coming from the academy and performing — Conor Bradley being the obvious example, but also Jarrel Quansah, James McConnell, Kaide Gordon, Bobby Clark and so many others now seem to be queuing up to follow in the footsteps of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott. In fact, the club is in such a healthy position, it’s almost an impossible task for any new manager to make things better. As Klopp said in his interview announcing his departure, it’s rare for a club to lose a manager when it’s playing well, it’s usually a result of underperformance on the pitch. But the Liverpool Klopp’s successor will be inheriting is a world away from the disjointed shambles that he inherited back in 2015.
But, right now, it’s impossible to imagine a future without Jürgen Klopp on the touchline, urging on a Liverpool team and crowd to keep being the best of themselves, and to keep giving each other memories to last a lifetime. And so it’s all about the next three months, and living every minute we have left with Jürgen at the helm.
Allez Allez Allez. Whatever will be, will be.
