“A final word from The Boss” Vol.9

Jürgen Klopp and the leaving of a “superpower of world football”

Jul 13, 2024

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D53T4L6N **(Author’s Collection)**

Sunday 19th May 2024

LIVERPOOL 2 (Mac Allister 34, Quansah 40)
WOLVES 0

Well the long goodbye came to an end yesterday and as if by Germanic precision everything went perfectly to plan, and Jürgen Norbert Klopp had an absolute ball! His team played quick, sharp, incisive football in elongated bursts that should have seen a game Wolverhampton Wanderers concede far more than the two first half goals that easily and ultimately sealed a comfortable home win. Anfield has rarely looked or sounded so beautiful with a pre-game mosaic in honour of the genial German the equal of a spine tingling rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” before legends old and new were acclaimed once more in song by a Kop who with 5 minutes remaining were joined by all three sides of this Liverpudlian coliseum, and all in beautiful harmony and deference, love and adulation, for Jürgen Norbert Klopp.

“I’m so glad, that Jürgen is a Red” continued for 10 minutes until the shrill of a referee’s whistle signalled the end of the managerial reign of a man with the key to the city of Liverpool and with the hearts and love of millions around the known world. Everyone, from personal favourite players Thiago Alcântara and Joël Matip through to club personnel and coaches were afforded hearty goodbyes before, with barely a dry eye to be found in this storied footballing house, the “normal one” from Stuttgart rather enjoyed himself!

I won’t have been alone yesterday when shedding more tears than perhaps we all should admit to, but when the captain hugs his manager in a vain attempt to hide his tears and the vice-captain is openly crying in front of The Kop during yet another beautiful rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, well we can all allow ourselves to be human once in a while can’t we?

I blame Jürgen Klopp!

For 18 months his team played “PlayStation Football” (copyright pending) that no team in the world could compete with. Shankly’s vision of building a team so great as to needing “a team from bloody Mars to beat us!” was writ large, and his team would be a single Premier League point and the width of a Parisian goalpost from chasing the impossible all over again. His “boys” and “kids” are becoming not just fantastic footballers but humble human men before our eyes, cup final winners too, and the man with the widest smile in football, even eclipsing that of the King, Kenny Dalglish, achieved this and so, so much more with humility and grace, warmth, compassion and love, coupled with an unfathomable desire to be the very best.

Football managers rarely if ever leave under these devotional, evangelical circumstances. Nor do they suggest a song for his successor in front of 60,000 of his adoring worshippers! To suggest that Arne Slot has rather large shoes to fill would be a monumental understatement but on the upside and, according to his predecessor, he’s being bequeathed a “superpower of world football”.

No pressure then!

Race for the Title

Manchester City P 38 W 28 D 7 L 3 GD 62 Points 91
Arsenal P 38 W 28 D 5 L 5 GD 62 Points 89
LIVERPOOL P 38 W 24 D 10 L 4 GD 45 Points 82

Manchester City did what Manchester do, winning their last league game of the season to wrap up the Premier League title and dashing the hearts of their nearest challengers. So often the Mighty Reds, this season it’s the “Gunners” of Arsenal who have to swallow the bitterest pill of all. Forever on the periphery and with games in hand (after being crowned Club Champions of the World lest we forget), Pep Guardiola’s monstrous winning team clicked into gear and never looked like losing as Liverpool imploded after the 3–4 FA Cup defeat at Manchester United and Arsenal could only (only!) post 89 points. Manchester City were always going to post 90+ points, it’s what that winning machine does. Tawdry and unseemly FFP rules breaches aside, 4 Premier League titles on the bounce is a MONUMENTAL achievement.

It’s for others to decide how tarnished these achievements will be judged in our coming future.

“Jürgen Klopp and the leaving of a “superpower of world football” can be found singing and dancing through pages 489 and 492 as well as the very final chapter of my second self-published book on the Mighty Reds of Liverpool entitled “A final word from The Boss”.