Jurgen Klopp wasn’t uncomfortable with the question but perhaps uneasy with the thought.
It was put to the departing Liverpool boss that one day he may be immortalised alongside the club’s greats with a statue outside of Anfield.
“Do I think I need it?,” he said. “Definitely not. I am not sure what Bill [Shankly] or all the other guys thought.”
It was quickly put to Klopp that Shankly’s statue was not erected until long after he had passed away.
“Well then they have another 40 years to think about that,” he responded. The 56-year-old German predicting how long he will live for.
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To be fair, he’s got most of his predictions right on Merseyside since arriving at Liverpool back in October 2015.
He said he would turn doubters to believers and deliver a title in four years. A Champions League was won in 2019 before the 30-year wait for a league title was ended in 2020.
A Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, FA Cup and two League Cups would follow.
It is why Klopp will be now spoken in the same breath as the likes of Shankly in these parts as he prepares for his final game in charge of Liverpool tomorrow at home to Wolves.
But while he may lap up the emotional farewell, the comparison is another to sit uneasy with him.
Klopp lifts his final trophy with Liverpool in February (Kieran McManus/REX/Shutterstock)“The thing is, it’s that long ago I’m not sure that there are many people still alive that really remember it and talk about it,” Klopp said, when speaking about Kop icon Shankly.
“It’s part of folklore. Bill Shankly didn’t do it alone. I understand that from the outside point of view, people might see it like that but, as Bill probably did think, alone would have been impossible.
“From his boot room, the guys who supported him in that time they all took over, boom, boom, boom. They were all there before but it was all about Bill in the city. It’s all about me, so who spoke about Pep Lijnders?
“They spoke about Pep Lijnders when the book came out and we didn’t play well. And they said why did he write a book?
“Wow, are you all crazy? Now he goes out and will conquer the world and people will realise ‘ah!’.”
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Klopp at his first ever press conference as Reds boss (Liverpool Echo)Shankly’s boot room did spawn the careers of more great managers like Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan.
But Klopp’s backroom team will all move on, as he mentioned assistant Pep Lijnders will bid to be his own man at Red Bull Salzburg while others will find new jobs.
Yet what Klopp can’t deny he has in common with Shankly is the connection with the people of the city. Football is certainly a common language in a city where it is red or blue, but one which working class and left-wing politics dominate too.
“The people, the city, you couldn’t do what Bill did in each city in the world,” said Klopp.
Shankly led Liverpool to the First Division and then three titles“You cannot do it in London where there are 25 clubs. If you went to that street you might support Crystal Palace or Fulham, that street you’re a bit closer to Chelsea or whatever.
“You are here and it’s red or blue. That’s how it is. This is the place you can do it.
“The way Bill understood it, and as far as I know about it, not that I’m an expert in it, because of the political way the people are coming from, you need someone that understands it is the power of unity, the power of togetherness, we give our all, we see what we get for it, we overcome obstacles and difficulties, and Bill was obviously the right man to do that.
“At that time, with the circumstances they had, they could bring in the players they needed and could keep them for as long as they needed them and that’s why they were incredibly successful.
“When I arrived here, people would probably describe it as darker times. It was 10 years since they won the Champions League, for other clubs they would still talk about it but for here it was too long [ago], two years after they got to the Champions League final so they wanted to go back pretty much on the landscape.
Klopp was a success at Borussia Dortmund (Bongarts/Getty Images)“For me it was No 1 choice, for whatever reason, it’s not really explainable. I just thought that is the one I want to have.
“What we did, together with the people, we restored the belief and the togetherness. People enjoy winning of course but fighting for it especially. It is part of our history here that we really get hit hard, punched hard and get up again.
“People probably enjoy that a little bit as well, it’s just different. ‘We take punches better than others and we go again’. It was not a plan but it is how people are here.
“I’m not a socialist but I come from there. I understand life like that. I fitted so well. I didn’t have to change a bit, that was the biggest blessing.
“We have the same view on life and I don’t have to pretend to be someone else. I just can say what I think, the rest of the world doesn’t like it but Liverpool rather like it so we agree on most of the things. That’s how it is.”
The success and the connection is why the red half of Liverpool almost went into mourning on a Friday morning late in January when he announced he was leaving at the end of this season.
Klopp feels he has to go now and has put it down to the need for a break. Football is life for him but he feels like ‘ Google ’ when friends and family come over as the sport is often the only discussion.
Celebrating winning the Premier League in 2020 (PA)His way of dealing with it is to listen to an audiobook to show he’s wanting to think about something else.
But the headphones can now surely come off and he can go back to his love of reading with the topic of conversation about to move on from Liverpool, just like he will.
Yet surely he’s going to miss it. Surely he’s going to miss the late winners like the one that made him run on to the pitch to celebrate with Alisson once in a derby.
Or the ‘corner taken quickly’ moment that led to ‘Origi!’ as the Reds beat Barcelona 4-0 at Anfield. Then there’s the fist pumps at full-time after wins and the joy of success with the Scousers.
“It’s my life so I might miss it,” added the former Borussia Dortmund and Mainz manager. “But I need to have a look on the other side because it makes absolutely no sense [not to].
“So I love what I do but it’s super intense and there is no space for anything else. There is no space. There is just not.
“And I know with all the things, people search and stuff like this, they have work 24 hours and in the end they cut in skin and open up a complete body and you think, that is really hard.
“It’s just different and it’s just intense, so that is how it is.
Liverpool's sixth European Cup was won in 2019 (AFP via Getty Images)“If you look at my three clubs, we always built a training ground, we always extend a stadium or build a stadium, whatever, so these jobs, I had not normal jobs, I was not a coach in the sense of you plan a session, go home and have a shower and especially not here.
“That is how it is. I need to find out if I will miss it and if I miss it, I could change that or I will realise, but it is still so good, all the rest, that I miss it and try to get it from somewhere else. “So I turn 57 in a month, I will not stop working, but must it be exactly that? I don’t think so in the moment but we will see later.
“Obviously the world is crazy and football directors, managers, there are a lot of clubs who are not 100 percent sure so if I would say, if I leave the door a little bit open, I could sign a contract today for next season or probably two years, I just don’t want that at all.
“I want to have a proper break and figure out what that does for me.”
Well, the red half of Merseyside will no doubt miss him if he’s not sure yet if he will miss football management.
“The way people in England see it you have to either love Liverpool or hate Liverpool,” he said. Obviously it was very easy for me to fall in love with the club and the people. It is a super special story.
“Could it have been more successful? Yes. With me? I don’t know. We did absolutely everything. I am very self-critical but I do not reflect on this in a critical way.
Klopp with great rival Pep Guardiola (Getty Images)“I do not see where we could have done this, or that, and then this or that would not have happened. I am super happy with my time here.”
If Klopp arrived to a team which needed reviving, he’s leaving one for Arne Slot which could be just coming alive with a refreshed midfield and plenty of youth.
“If you are in the group that is close enough to make the next step,” he added. “With new influences. They are important. They are really important.
“Our football doesn’t have to change completely but can be justified here and there, can be players in different positions, can do this and that, the quality is still there, can still develop, fantastic. Let’s go.
“And that is really what I like. It is not an emergency case and you hear that beep beep beep and it is close to [pretends to be a life support machine and gives one long] beep, it is really healthy, a very vital club with a wonderful training ground, sensational stadium, financially not bad.
“On roses? We never were but solid, on a high level. Let’s go from there. That gives me the best feeling.”
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