It was Valentine’s Day but I was not feeling the love. We had arrived in Porto that morning and it hadn’t stopped raining since. And it was heavy, relentless rain, the type that soaks you through, leaving you totally wet and truly annoyed.
So yes, my mood was not the best as we entered the Estádio do Dragão at about 7pm, and all I really wanted to do was find my seat, watch the game, watch us win, and get back to our hotel. But then I made the decision, somewhat ironically, to buy a bottle of water and on the way I saw a sight that lifted my spirits entirely. Standing in a circle were a group of young lads, as drenched as I was but bouncing as they roared the same chant over and over again.
“… conquered all of Europe … Paris down to Turkey, won the fucking lot … Bob Paisley and … Fields of Anfield Road … and we come from Liverpool!”
I couldn’t fully make out the words but it was compelling stuff, leading me to ask one of the young lads what he was singing. “It’s the Allez, Allez, Allez song,” he replied. “It’s fucking boss.”
I have no idea whether Porto away in the last 16 of the 2017-18 Champions League was the first time Liverpool supporters had belted out Allez, Allez, Allez (we won 5-0, by the way) but I know it was the first time I had heard it, and of all the chants and songs that have come to define the Jürgen Klopp era it’s undeniably my favourite. Partly because, yes, it’s boss, and partly because of how it perfectly captures the hope, optimism, belief and defiance that have characterised being a Red during the past eight-and-a-bit years. Those qualities have been there all the way through and largely because of him. The boss.
And now he’s leaving. Not just yet but very soon and I’m devastated. The news came out of nowhere and landed like a punch to the gut and a poke to the eyes, leaving me wounded and on the verge of tears. Some may scoff at such a reaction, especially from a man in his early 40s who frankly should have more important things in his life to get upset about, but you can’t help how you feel and few have made me feel more than the big German with the big grin who made a big announcement on an otherwise quiet Friday morning.
“I’m the normal one,” Klopp said upon walking into Anfield in October 2015, but little of what has followed has been normal, especially for supporters such as myself, too young to remember the glory days of the 1970s and 80s. Don’t get me wrong, there have been great eras in the 35 years I’ve been following the team – Roy Evans’ swaggering mavericks, Gérard Houllier’s treble winners, Rafael Benítez’s miracle workers – but none have lasted as long and been as successful as this one. As the song says, we’ve won the lot, but more than that we’ve done so with a group of players who have consistently excited us under a manager who has consistently inspired us.
He’s done that through his talents as a coach but also, and perhaps more profoundly, through his bond with the fanbase. Klopp has always understood our need for a strong emotional connection to our team because he feeds off strong emotional connections himself – to use that most horrible of cliches, he gets us and we get him – and deployed that as a unifying force right from the off. Hence his mission statement to “change from doubters to believers” after taking over at a club that was essentially broken after Brendan Rodgers’ final season in charge and immediate focus on getting those in the stands to once again feel something for those on the pitch. Outsiders mocked the celebration in front of the Kop after the 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion in December 2015 but it had a purpose and it worked. We were fully on board again and, boy, what a ride it has been.
Liverpool have become a force again and for those of us lucky to be able to follow the team in the flesh the experience has been something else, in the Champions League especially. I honestly didn’t think the Benítez years could be topped when it came to European Anfield atmospheres but in the last few years, standing in block 305 high in the Kop, I’ve been part of some of my all-time favourite nights at that place. Brilliantly raucous occasions fuelled, in those early Klopp days especially, by a brilliantly raucous team. The 3-0 victory over Manchester City in April 2018, when it became practically feral around me, remains a standout, and then there was the 4-0 win over Barcelona in May 2019. Even now it’s impossible to fully comprehend the magic of that balmy, barmy evening.
There has also been the travel: Moscow, Munich, Milan, Rome, Kyiv, Belgrade, Salzburg … even rain-lashed Porto; I’ve loved them all, with the highlight undeniably being Madrid 2019, when I was behind the goal at the Estadio Metropolitano where Divock Origi scored to seal our sixth European Cup and felt a rush of euphoria that bordered on the unworldly.
And what made all of those occasions particularly special was that I shared them with my mates, each of us forming and forging some of the happiest moments of our lives. It speaks to the unity Klopp has fostered in the fanbase, that sense of a wildly joyous, collective experience. I saw it again at Fulham on Wednesday night: an away end as one, singing our songs, chanting our chants and roaring on the boys to yet another cup final under our beloved, fist-pumping leader. None of us knew then what, sadly, we all know now.
Klopp’s decision to walk away two years before the end of a contract he signed only 21 months ago is not only a shock but also curious. The sense lingers that something else has happened, something yet to be revealed. Or maybe it is simply, as Klopp put it, that he is “running out of energy”, unable to keep doing this job “again and again and again and again”. In that regard the low moments of his time at Liverpool – the heart-breaking title losses to City either side of the one he did manage to win, the Covid season, last season … Paris – may also have caught up him. It all hurt us so it all probably hurt him too.
What is for sure is that Klopp will leave in four months as a true great. He’s not been perfect and undoubtedly made mistakes, on and off the pitch, but his legacy is incredible and what is clearly important – or as he put it, “super, super, super important” – to him is that he will depart having laid the foundations for more success via a re-energised squad full of promising young talent. Klopp’s contribution also means they get to prepare at a state-of-the-art training centre and play at a stadium that continues to go through eye-catching modernisation while retaining its distinct sense of history.
For now the focus is on the remainder of the season and Liverpool winning the four competitions they are in to give their manager the perfect sendoff. I will be doing everything I can as a supporter to make that happen; it’s the least I can do. A little under seven years ago I went through a really troubling time – essentially a severe bout of depression – and there were moments when I didn’t think I would get through it. But I did, in large part thanks to the love and support of my family and friends, but also because of the utter joy I got from watching my football team play. A lot of people contributed to that but none more so than the man in charge.
Danke für alles, Jürgen.
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