GETTING it out the way. Getting it all out the way immediately. You need transfer committees because no one is a genius and knows everything. But I have the first say and the last say and so now you know. That is that. That’s that boxed. This history stuff is amazing but you can’t carry it round with you every day. That’s that boxed. We’re not going to worry about money. We’re going to worry about football. That’s that boxed. Other legends have done this job but I can’t compare myself to them. I, we, have to live in the moment. That’s that boxed. This team and squad is good. Let’s believe in it. That’s that boxed. The ambition is at least one league title within four years. That’s that boxed.
It doesn’t get any clearer than all that. All that nonsense about what should be what and how should be how, and what should be expected. All swept up and dumped into the bin. And then:
I don’t care about the press. I want to get on the training pitch and work with footballers. Emotional football. Full throttle football.
Football. Football, football, football. Football for the people in the stand, football for them to forget their problems, football for the people to love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU7FPIA16uk
It’s eleven lads, another eleven lads and a ball. It was that in 1892. It was that in 1947. It was that in 1959 and in 2005 and any day you care to mention. It was that in Germany. It will be that in England in 2015.
The reality of course is that there will be money, there will be committees, there will be nonsense and fluff and there will be structural issues. There just will be. This is inescapable and we know that.
But for ninety minutes, every few days, what we know can’t matter any more because it is in knowing it, in being ground down by it, we’ve allowed ourselves to lose sight of the point of the enterprise. And that has now been swept up and dumped into the bin. For ninety minutes every few days there is just the eleven lads wearing Red, representing a unique city, a specific diaspora. Eleven lads running round, running hard, leaving everything out there because they will know what football means, if they didn’t before. There’s a simplicity in that and it is the only thing in town worth embracing, that’s been the case for so long and it has never been truer.
It is, as calls to arms go, straightforward. Crystal clear. And if you aren’t looking forward to Spurs and Kazan, to Southampton and Bournemouth, if that just doesn’t get you going, wanting to be emotional, unashamedly emotional, optimistic, passionate in a way that outsiders love to mock and our own meek minded souls call “embarrassing” then you know what? There’s the door. There is the door and you can walk through it and both you and us will be happier for that. Because for ninety minutes every few days, this fella represents Liverpool, eleven lads wearing Red represent Liverpool and we represent Liverpool. Wherever we are on globe, with an even greater responsibility if we are in the stadium.
No one is asking anything arduous. The request is this simple: for ninety minutes, every few days, there is nothing else in your life. That’s the point of the enterprise, always has been and always will be. Just ninety minutes getting behind a bad half-joking loveable weirdo of a city, a football team which will always be a bit flawed in some way because almost all of them are but us doing so in a manner which covers flaws. Shifts us all from doubters to believers, now.
You can distil almost everything Jürgen Klopp has said into this sentence:
“Forget all that, let’s just enjoy this.”
Instructions don’t get more straightforward.
So, sound. Let’s do that then. I wish it was Saturday 17th October right now.
Up the Reds.
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Pics: PA Images/Propaganda Photo
I am absolutely ecstatic how quickly liverpool fans have taken him to heart. This is why Ive called for him to be our boss for about a year. Leave aside his considerable achievements for a second. He just gets us. Watching the presser, you could feel it. He instinctively knows who we are and what we are about.
There was no need for pre-determined answers or buzzwords thrown in to replies to journalists, no need to show off how well he knows our history. He was himself, comfortable in his own skin, aware of the challenge yet undaunted by it. He even had the balls to demand some manners, in no uncertain terms, from the photographers who were clicking as a journalist asked a question. And we already adore him for it.
We are all blinded by Kloppmaina now. Hopefully those very few who doubted him before his arrival will get on this freight train. There might be a bump or two along the way but the destination over this 8 month jaunt is champions league football.
As for the ultimate destination…..he’s making me dream like Luis did that he can take us there too. Choo fucking choo!
PS: How good is it to see Utd and Arsenal fans looking on in envy because of who will be in our dug out? That wasnt even the case under Rafa, let alone any of our other recent managers. Up the reds.
Well said.
You’re observations are on point here. Klopp wasn’t messing about. Everything boxed.
Nuff said…
Your* even..
I feel like he’s just gone right, you’re all fucking mad. I’m fucking mad too. Let’s be fucking mad together.
I’m so excited about this. Imagine not being. Just imagine.
spot on, m8
There’s some serious man-love for our Jürgen already…he’s a cool guy for sure.
One of the main points he kept repeating was “We have to change from doubting, to believing”
Someone online elsewhere has already suggested his song should me an amended version of “I’m a believer” by The Monkeys…can you imagine Anfield bouncing to that?!
Any wordsmiths want to have a go?
He’s Jurgen Klopp
Now I’m a believer
not a trace
of doubt in my mind
He is a man who wears a cap and drinks ale
A man who came here to win the league
We are gonna beat ya
That is the way it is
We’ll be lifting the cups come next May
He is Jurgen Klopp
Now I am a believer
Not a trace
Of Doubt on my mind
Jurgen Klopp is here hmmmmmm and I am a believer
I couldn’t doubt him even if I tried….
Clap Clap, Clap, Clap Clap, Clap
I’ve looked forward to every game so far this year, but if anything i’m even more keen for the Spurs game to come around. i’m dying to know what the players think of this appointment, though i imagine they’re keeping quiet for the moment out of respect for BR.
A whole new world of opportunity feels as though it’s just arrived.
Just looking forward to enjoying football again, sick of the divisions at the club.
I have a feeling that we might be about to go on a magnificent journey.
I can’t wait.
Beneath the bonhomie lurks a very smart man. He said all the right things. The players will be eating out of his hand in no time. He’ll make them feel ten foot tall. Walk around Joe Allen, walk around wee Phil Coutinho; they are giants!
‘But for ninety minutes, every few days, what we know can’t matter any more because it is in knowing it, in being ground down by it, we’ve allowed ourselves to lose sight of the point of the enterprise.’
Spot. On.
Jurgen Klopp
(oooooo)
I’m a believer,all round the fields
of anfield road
Stop thinking about money. Bang, just like that he killed such a big and complicated issue in the league. Simple statement
This man’s got it
When was the last time you felt ‘giddy’ as a school girl meeting Bieber for the first time!
When was the last time FSG made you giddy, Bren did in a couple years back – this guy is so charasmatic i want to marry him and have his babies!
Spurs – apologies, someone had to be lambs to the slaughter!
Cant wait until the first Klopp / Mourinho spat – our guys 6’4″!!!!
we now have one of the top coaches in World football – defo in top 10, possibly top 5/6. We have a proven manager – i love it.
Just remembered the last time i felt this way about an incoming person – when Rushie returned!
It was quite an incredible presser.
There are chelsea and arsenal fans around me at work who all lapped it up. He had even them hanging on his words.
great stuff.
HE DID THE THING!!! HE DID THE THING NEIL…… HE DID THE FUCKING THING!!!
He set out a plan and said this is what we’re going to do. This is how we change things. We are going to win the League at least once in 4 years.
Finally a manager with bollocks. I love the guy already
Great article
So glad I’ve got a ticket for Tottenham next week
love it Neil, love him.. get behind him and let’s go nuts… proper nuts.
Just had 100th “Orgasms” in 24 hours!!!
this is the real “Hysteria??”
Made it possibe by Kloppy, a guy i have never met and never will, in person, probably. Mind u, i am a happily married straight guy (no discrimination intended towards the rainbow flag).
Everyone’s like a kid at Christmas now and it’s great.
Can’t wait to watch us; feels fitting with the season’s peak performances coming at Tottenham away the last two years.
Boss read as always!
Lids, my next door neighbour is a German and has a Dortmund flag. Is it breaking keep flags scouse rules to bring it to Tottenham?
I loved this: “It’s our job to let them forget their problems for 90 minutes and then they can talk for three days about the last game and talk for two days about the next game. That’s how I want to live – if I am not a manager, that’s the way I would live because I love this game so much.”
He just validated TAW Player.
Exactly what I thought when I heard him say it this morning!
Long time since I took a sickie for a pressie !!!
Well worth the guilt,
Guy lit up the room,
Good piece Neil but mind those short sentences :)!!
You’re fired!
Don’t worry Derek you’re not fired, you had a very good excuse for pulling a sicky.
This is just great news. I’m excited for football again. It was getting to be too much like hard work there for a while. Surely we can do better than a Monkeys song though… Please GOD!!
Well said, Neil, and keep saying it.
We need your faith-building poetry like never before.
From doubters to believers is so spot on I can hardly believe Kloppo said it.
Straight forward nailed it. Proper.
Champions elect!!!
Too soon?
He’s gonna make Lallana a man-eater. He’s gonna build the team around Joe Allen. He’s gonna make Sakho captain. We’re gonna eat lightning and crap thunder!
I have no idea what he’s going to do! I love it!
I love you Neil Atkinson. Boxed.
Love him already
“Give me time, but we’re going to win stuff anyway” – fave (paraphrased) line from last night’s podcast, paraphrasing Klopp…
An unflappable genius who knows things take time but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a dent on day one and start as you mean to continue.
I particularly liked how he praised the current squad, its qualities and its assembly. Apart from getting the players onside, it struck me as a subtle tribute to Rodgers from one manager to another. Classy, and an antidote to Houllier’s constant refrains of ‘look what I mess I inherited’. Obviously, all our past managers had their flaws and no doubt Klopp has some too, but now isn’t the time to speculate on them.
I discovered the Anfield Wrap during 2013-14 and it was inextricably linked with that incredible style of play in re-igniting my passion for a game I’d fallen out of love with. Even the devastation of not winning the league was tempered by the end of season shindig at Camp and Furnace (John Power bought me a beer standing at the bar after his brilliant set – a simple gesture that helped turn a sickening day into an unforgettable night).
Then things got a bit shit for a while and, inevitably, ended in a period of frustration for all of us and a ‘sabbatical’ for Rodgers.
Then FSG went out and punched the most above their weight since John Henry pulled his missus. Capturing Klopp must be among the top 5 acquisitions in the club’s history both in terms of his past accomplishments and the impact of his arrival on the mood of the fans.
Suddenly, draws with lower league opposition, lesser lights of Europe and the Bitter Blues seem a distant memory. And all Juergen’s done is land at JLA, do a presser and have a pint in town. Imagine what it will be like when he starts managing the footie?
I’m bursting at the seams to see him get a tune out of these players, gegenpress the f*ck out the opposition, fire up the Kop and, hopefully, inspire some more scenes like 2013/14 on the Anfield Wrap.
It’s back on, and it’s back on big!
Ich bin ein scouser