With Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool contract set to run until 2026 and the club’s future feeling uncertain, are we ignoring the elephant in the room?
THE elephant in the room, then.
Jürgen Klopp might leave Liverpool. He definitely will at some point, but don’t for one second think that is nailed on to be summer 2026.
Klopp has never dealt well in security and certainty, he’s too modest. His inner Mainz 05 chimp tells him constantly that this game dishes out serious body blows when you least expect it.
Most importantly, he values the institution and his own wellbeing too much. If it isn’t working, pack up and go. There’s a slope to ski, a sea to plunge and a beer to pour.
It’s with that same affirmation and outlook which allowed us to learn from him.
He syphoned every sinew of this city’s energy along with that of his team and ran with it. They ran until their legs stopped working. Their legs might have stopped working.
Life lessons in block 104. A man with vigour and fight doing more than the sum of his parts, and going way beyond the job description and person specification.
He might be tired, just like they are. He might be thinking of beers in the sun. “Kloppo,” as his natives call him, always up for the party, might want his bed for a bit.
The concept of the elephant in the room is, of course, alluding to what’s being ignored. The discussion we’re all skirting around. Apparently nobody stood in a room with an elephant wants to talk about it.
The reality is we’d dine out for years on such a tale: “Eh, remember that elephant in the room we was in? Mad that, wasn’t it?”
Let’s address it; he isn’t performing well as Liverpool manager this season. He feels he’s keeping better company with the dozen or so sacked than those who remain.
There are three notable differences to his situation. The first is he remains an elite manager wedded to a perfect club, the second is he’s safer than any elite manager in Europe, and the third is his ability to overcome adversity.
For us, that should be enough. Close your eyes and wait for it to pass. There’ll be parties and pyro and rambunctious football once again.
Because this man gave me everything. He showed me that football can represent a city. He taught me about togetherness, community, inclusivity and modesty better than the bulk of adult role models across my life.
He makes me proud every single day of that place and that time. He made the Mersey sparkle, the sunsets eternal and the atmosphere feral. He’ll tell us all we did that, but the reality is he awakened us.
He needs to know we believe that we can do it again.
There’s a poem about elephants in rooms by Terry Kettering. The elephant in his prose represents death. He ponders whether: “For if we talk about his/her death, perhaps we talk about his/her life. Can I say to you and not have you look away? For if I cannot, you are leaving me alone… In a room… With an elephant.”
Nobody envisaged this season’s catastrophic downturn, not least Klopp himself. He now faces the stark reality we all do that his transition isn’t as smooth as we maybe imagined.
But there’s something about this club and that man which provides a belief that nothing is dead. That the hypothetical elephant in this particular room is full of shit.
He needs help and he will get it. He needs to win football matches and he will win them. He needs, above all else, to be the spark which ignites all around him once again.
The nature of this particularly complex beast means that there’s simply no other way.
Liverpool stands up to narratives better than anywhere I know. We fight on the basis that we’re not related to the Chelsea or even the Leicester City managerial arc. That our fella doesn’t behave the way Manchester City’s does.
They’ve got a fight on their hands like never before. If Jürgen Klopp is up for it, the only question left is whether you are.
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“Anyone who was at Shevchenko Park will be speaking about it for decades to come.”
“That was such a romantic journey and it would’ve been my favourite season ever had we won.”
📺 JÜRGEN | Part Three
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We will come again we are Liverpool any one who wants a new manager.is talking through there arse he has brought us great times and will do again . Trust him .any one who thinks this is a bad season hasn’t watched the reds for long probably since 2005 .
“Any one who thinks this is a bad season hasn’t watched the reds for long probably since 2005”, You can’t be serious lad, what a stupid comment. I have been watching the Reds for 35 yrs. Season ticket holder. This is a bad season, a shockingly bad season, by any stretch of the imagination. We are barely in the top half of the table and comfortably closer to the bottom of the table then the top for Gods sake, to claim ya have to be some sort of new fan glory hunter, which you imply by your 2005 comment basing it on Istanbul, to think this is a bad season is laughable, the last thing the club needs is fans like you, take your lack of ambition across the road to the Blues, ya sausage.
Too many bad buys lately
Nunez I’m not convinced
Arthur A joke surely
Carvalho One for future maybe?
Ramsay Injured when bought and too slow
Diaz. Injury prone
Konate Injury prone
Thiago injury prone
Kieta permanently injured
Ox permanently injured
No true Liverpool fan of normal intelligence wants Klopp out. Yes mistakes have been made but even Shankly & Paisley made mistakes. This is a bad season by our standards, but anyone who supported them in the 90s saw far worse than this, believe me. At least we still have hope. Back then there was nothing but embarrassment.
The other question is wether certain players are up for it or wether they have fallen into believing their own hype. And wether certain others just need a summer off or are permanently shot. And another question is wether the owners are going to stump up the cash for a major rebuild or wether they’re going to continue their model of one proper signing per window. Jurgen has taken enough bullets for them, having to pretend ludicrously at the start of this season that he’s happy with our midfield. There’s no hiding this time
Klopp has been, as always, ‘dignified in his responses’ on the way we are playing and our obvious weaknesses. Imagine (god forbid) we had someone like Conte? That would be a different PR story altogether. Behind the scenes, the club is operating smoothly (new stand, finances in the black) so we can’t say it’s chaos upstairs but it does feel like ‘the perfect storm’. Freak Injuries. Players past it. Confidence low. Players not up to it. Players ‘always’ injured (I think we know who I am referring to) and put that into the mix and you get this season. I have seen worse than this like many of us down the years so I expect us to be back next season challenging. Doesn’t mean I am happy with what I am seeing but I think some perspective is needed here and as always, ‘be careful what you wish for’. This is a massive wake up call for FSG and if they do not learn from this season, then they never will and that is a completely different topic.