It's unusual to look forward to a football game you know is going to end up leaving you sad.
But that’s what’s in store at Anfield tomorrow, a place I’ve been visiting regularly for six decades.
Because tomorrow, for the final time, Jurgen Klopp will march onto the pitch beating his chest and unleashing that big, white, toothy smile – and then he will be gone. And boy, will he be missed, because rarely in life, whether it’s in work, politics or sport, do you get a leader who connects so perfectly with his people, as Klopp did with Liverpool.
Stan Boardman used to joke that Scousers hated the Germans because they bombed our chippies. Today at least half the city would say they love the Germans because a larger-than-life hipster from the Black Forest gave us our mojo back.
When he arrived in 2015, this famous club had gone a quarter of a century without winning the English league title and it felt like we were stuck in a living nightmare, haunted by past glories. Klopp was the exorcist who drove out the demons.
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At his first press conference he told Liverpudlians: “It’s not allowed that we put the history, a big history, in the backpack and carry it all day. We have to work in the present.”
His demand that everyone changes from “doubters to believers” was a cry to trust in his vision. We did. And he took us on a wondrous journey that made us champions of England, Europe and the world, winning every major trophy by playing a brand of heavy metal football that left us breathless and delirious.
Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool celebrate with the Champions League in 2019 (Getty Images)As he leaves, having been mentally drained by giving his all, the quality of the football will be missed but the quality of the man even more so. The German was always comfortable with being an adopted Scouser.
He spoke our language, shared our passion, our principles and our bloody-minded pride in who we are.
When, in 2022, he was given the freedom of the city he said that he and Liverpool people “care about similar things, have similar political views and we like to be very open”.
Over the past eight-and-a-half years he has told us his politics are on the left and the welfare state must be protected, denounced racism, hailed Brexit a disaster and told football’s bosses that “there should be a bigger purpose to this game than revenue”.
That’s why so many people see him as the heir to the greatest figure in Liverpool’s history, Bill Shankly. A natural wit, a left-winger, a master motivator, who believed the only people who truly matter at a football club are the fans, and his players’ sole job is to make those people happy.
Jurgen insisted, through all the ups and downs, that we were on an emotional journey, like life, that must be enjoyed. Now that it ends, such is the magnitude of his charisma and presence, it’s hard to imagine life without him. But there should be no sadness, just gratitude that we came together.
When he joined 490 games ago, he said: “It’s not important what people think when you come into a club but what they think when you leave.”
Tomorrow, as he’s hit by a red wall of love, he will be left in no doubt what we think of him.
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