What makes Jürgen Klopp perfect for the England manager job, as well as the antithesis to the identity that surrounds the position…
JÜRGEN Klopp and the England job is fundamentally hard to argue against.
His presence in any capacity is difficult to poo-poo because it’s Jürgen, and all the magic he brings.
You baulk at the mere suggestion of attaching him to narratives of things coming home, though. You want anyone else but him to lead the stray of a nation through the front door to warm acclaim and appreciation.
Let’s be clear, Klopp seems intent on the year off he’s promised himself. The cries of tabloid and broadsheet writers are mere bellows from the backbench. A fanciful longing for a slice of good times and common sense. An abandonment, once and for all, of Marks And Spencer’s latest summer men’s range.
I haven’t been surprised about this. For all the hypocrisy shouts at those who hate the man, simply because of his love and affiliation to Liverpool Football Club, they still long for every aspect of him.
Up and down the country they yearn for fist pumping, coach welcoming, ‘Allez Allez Allez’ infused support, because they witnessed what Liverpool and Klopp did together.
No, we didn’t invent these things. We also plagiarised aspects of the culture we built. But those who criticised loudest were often most envious.
To a nation so bereft of hope and identity, Klopp is in some ways the only figure able to bring it back from the brink.
This was, as the recent Anfield Wrap audio documentary Jürgen’s Journey reminded us, a place we were also in.
We forget how divided it was. How Klopp had to apportion a large body of his work to uniting a stadium and supporter base that simply didn’t believe its glory could ever return.
He did so by making Liverpool feel partisan beyond borders. We were splintered into doing it our way. Into ‘enjoying life’ as was repeated more than once on the audio archives.
In so many ways the same cannot be said for the English national team. Why? Because it’s England, and every semblance of what England screams is entitlement. Perhaps justifiably with the ever-present richness in personnel it boasts. Not so with contrasts to its perennial sense of underachievement and sad-sack routine.
I’m not denying Les from Dagenham or Lee from Hull the chance to experience something like Jürgen Klopp because they like to watch football shirtless or think that Nigel Farage makes some good points.
That sterile generalisation is actually unfair to a multicultural country which gets behind the concept of a national sports team. It’s unfair to the reality that international football can still act as a force of national pride and positive representation.
I would worry about the fit because of the imperial saviour complex this country would attach through its national media. I am already rolling my eyes at the lazy war puns and schoolgirl giggles about the prospect of actually liking a German, which to England’s great state mentality remains oddly a thing.
Mostly, I would worry for Klopp. Someone who found the rigours of Liverpool’s local patch journalism an unnecessary merry dance at times.
I wince at the thought of him attending Football Association dinners or being peddled out by the old boys committee during the long impasse between international breaks.
All the things Gareth Southgate and Roy Hodgson were, Jürgen Klopp is most definitely not.
Mostly, I would heed caution because England right now feels like a full-time project. It would need the momentum of going to The Kop after West Brom in 2015 right through to the moment Liverpool lift the European Cup and everything in between.
England support, like all international football, is sporadic. It relies on small bursts of giving a shit enough to celebrate. The finalists and winners of this year’s European Championships will need to be dwelled on in future. The increasing lack of energy from players is concerning.
Even the most ardent of England fans, with their collection of retro ‘90s home and away shirts simply cannot support it full time, because there’s nothing to support.
I’ve never been convinced Klopp will step into the international scene for this very reason. If he does, he might want to avoid somewhere which requires so much tactical and cultural surgery without the ability to work day-to-day with players, staff and supporters.
But still, even after my case for prosecution against the sheer notion of it, I can’t argue against it. The reason remains that it’s Jürgen, and experiencing him makes life better. He allows you a different outlook. He remains effervescent in his approach which in-turn creates a sense of youth and positivity in yourself.
I want him to be Liverpool’s for all-time. I want him immortalised in this legend while he kicks about playing Padel and going to Jamie XX gigs.
I adore the fact that we had him and they all want him, case in point, and yet still I can’t find it in me to want to deny anyone of the same.
Ultimately, you’re once again left feeling that the world needs more people like him. And that he really is unique. If it ever transpires that he becomes manager of the English national team, smile and know they’re in for some ride.
Know that he does it with love. To make things better.
Buy Dan Morgan’s book ‘Jürgen Said To Me’ on Klopp, Liverpool and the remaking of a city…
