YESTERDAY we discovered Jürgen Klopp’s punishment for running a bit on Sunday was an £8,000 fine and “a warning about future behaviour”.
Basically like your dad telling you to pack it in. Which, to be fair, is probably what my dad would say if I ran on the pitch at the end of a Merseyside derby. So good to see some consistency in football at last.
This punishment will likely annoy certain sections of the media and rival fan bases, however. Who all were queuing up to have a “who can be the most outraged” competition in the 24 hours following the “incident”.
You can understand Everton fans getting angry, to a certain extent. They’d just seen their team concede a ridiculous last-minute goal so were going to be hurting. Although setting up a petition calling for a four-eight match ban was probably a touch over the top. But yeah, if I was an Evertonian I’d hate Klopp too.
You can also understand rival fans at the top wanting to see Klopp get in trouble too. Anything that might damage Liverpool’s ability to win football games, no matter how small, will be jumped on. We’re all obsessed, rabid hypocrites after all.
But the media reaction did take me back. Especially as at the time I didn’t even notice it. Too busy running round like a lunatic myself I guess.
Much of the BBC’s post-match reaction seemed to focus not on the drama of a last-minute winner, nor on a great day of derby football, but instead on a manager celebrating a bit more wildly than normal. In a clip from the 606 phone in shared wildly across the BBC’s social media, Danny Mills was heard to call the celebration “absolutely shocking”. If Danny Mills is that easily shocked, I hope he stayed in on Halloween.
Of course there was an actually “absolutely shocking” incident at another derby that day, with a banana being thrown at a black Arsenal player, but for some reason that seemed to get far less attention on Sunday evening. Why was that? Maybe people just couldn’t believe that someone would behave so appallingly in 2018. But maybe criticising Klopp just gets you more hits and views than criticising some neanderthal.
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Despite an early FA charge, swift admission of guilt and a fine, the media have tried to keep the story going, asking almost every manager in this week’s pre-match press conference about the celebration. To be fair, none of them have bitten.
Pep Guardiola admitted he’d done something similar against Southampton, Mauricio Pochettino said he’d fancy beating him in a race and, much to the annoyance of his petition-starting supporters, Everton manager Marco Silva said he didn’t think he should be punished at all. I haven’t seen an Everton manager go against his fan base at Christmas so much since Ronald Koeman got the red tree.
It’s not unusual for managers to stick together. But there also seems to be an acceptance among most normal people who like football that it is an emotional game and it is better off with too much emotion than too little. We complain that atmospheres are poorer and players less interesting, yet whenever anyone does anything out of the ordinary the same people go mad.
Klopp shouldn’t have run on the pitch. This has been acknowledged by the man himself and the FA who have fined him. But for Liverpool fans it was brilliant. A clear demonstration that the manager cares as much as we do about a late winner in a Merseyside derby. There has even been talk of having a collection for his fine. Before everyone sensibly realised he has well more money than us and we’ve got Christmas coming up.
However, he’s a man who, from the start, has talked about wanting more feelings like that in football, not less, and that should be applauded. Even if he does occasionally need telling off. Like a puppy who sometimes just wants to go on a big run on the grass, even if he isn’t allowed.
The irony, of course, is that when Liverpool play Everton again it will be the picture of Klopp striding across the pitch that the media will use to sell the event. Along with big tackles and screaming fans. Passion, basically. We all seem to accept it is what makes football brilliant, but get all uppity when it’s in our faces.
What do we want? Sensible passion. Passion with smooth edges. Well I like my passion unbridled, if it is all the same to you. And so does Jürgen Klopp. And we’re right. So there.
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Gibbo, you couldn’t be more right. I loved seeing our manager run across that pitch and squeeze Alisson. What living, breathing man wouldn’t want an excuse, any excuse, to get an AB cuddle. Should he be fined? Who cares! It was worth the price. The Ev should see it as the compliment it was. We moaned about PSG celebrations… oops. Should everyone tsk tsk the manager? Fine. But that’s the passion we want in the game and in our team. If Jose has done that, we’d be pissed… but secretly love that he gave a meaning to our venom. It’s sports boys, it’s an arena… passion or death… I’ll take passion!
Nice points
To be fair all the Evertonians I’ve talked to never even mentioned it. Missed chances and jammy bastards yes, Klopp’s run no. All press hype.
Are you kidding, they have already started the work on the trailers for the next one.. rating for the game will be up, they’ll make sure it is televised, etcetcetc… they love it for ratings, but have to act shocked.. because.. more ratings.
The banana one.. that won’t get attention, because you can’t sell the rematch with images of thrown bananas.. well you could, actually.. sell a narrative of Arsenal going to the New White Hart Lane to rub it in the noses of old school racists… but they won’t. Should, but won’t, because that narrative only has one side.
Spot on Gibbo. And the bitters I’ve had the pleasure (and it has been a pleasure!) of speaking to since haven’t mentioned it. Although I reckon most if them switched the tv off immediately after the ball hit the net….
Maybe Klopp should get sponsored by Ted Baker for the next Derby!
Great piece Gibbo!
Being a German and remembering the Gary Monk vs David Wagner “incident” in the Championship, i never really could understand this. I accept, this is British mentality, but to elbow someone who just came over from Germany to do the thing which is the most normal thing in the world, to celebrate a goal, is weird.
This was and is never about disrespect, it is just about enjoying the own luck/success/determination and that is all. To me, the Brits are the exception and not the rule. Get a league full of Pardews, Dyches, Moyeses, “Allardici”s and Pulises and you don’t have to worry any more.
My comments on Danny Mills on another article;
Danny Mills. A complete no mark. Did nothing as a player and now acts the hard man on a phone in. Behave Danny, you would not have forearmed smashed Klopp if you had been on the field, as A) You could never have run that fast to have caught him up and B) You were a shit house as a player and C) Klopp is a big lad and would just bear hug the life out of you if you did that to him. – Seriously, can this bellend hear himself. He wants to forearm smash a manager just for giving his goalie a hug. What a tosser.
It was ridiculous. It was awesome.
It was daft. It was brilliant.
He should have received a yellow card, equivalent to a “tops-off celebration”.
Done. Finished. Nothing more.
Glad we have a manager that is into it !!
Glad we have a manager that is human !!
Glad we have Klopp(o) !!
More words been devoted to this than some of the tackles dished out in the Burnley match … with no yellow (red even) cards. Compared to the PSG game it was brutal.