Kloppite

David Segar

Description

When Jurgen Klopp was appointed Liverpool manager in October 2015, the world took notice, and Reds fans were united in optimism for the first time in years. The charismatic German eventually took the club to European and world success, but the foundations were laid in his first two years at Anfield, and Kloppite (first published in 2017 and updated in 2020) explores how the bespectacled coach set about reigniting the LFC flame in that period - not only trying to change the fortunes of the once-dominant club, but also making the people believe again. After his successes at Mainz and Borussia Dortmund, Klopp left Germany to take on his greatest challenge as he sought to return the Merseysiders to the summit of English and European football. The hot-seat at Anfield has often been described as one of the toughest jobs in football, and Klopp was tasked with overcoming the adversity of fan expectations, competing against some of the game's best managers and biggest spenders, and turning doubters into believers.

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 02 octobre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785313707
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2017
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
David Segar, 2017
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978-1-78531-306-6 eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-370-7
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Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Photographs
This book is dedicated to Raymond Clifford Segar (1950-2011), without whom it would never have been possible. You started and nurtured a love of football and writing.
Thanks for everything, Dad.
Acknowledgements
T HE first thanks have to go to Paul and Jane Camillin at Pitch Publishing for showing enough faith in a previously unpublished writer to cover a topic as exhaustive as this. Also for showing patience when I asked what were, in hindsight, probably pretty daft questions.
Also to Duncan Olner for an excellent cover design. I gave him a vague description of what I was after and he somehow managed to produce exactly what was in my mind s eye.
An absolutely enormous thank you to Gareth Roberts, Neil Atkinson and everyone at The Anfield Wrap , not just for contributing to this book, but for allowing me to be a small part of TAW and to get my writing out there in the first place. I first spoke to Gareth about writing for his former labour of love, Well Red Magazine , and he s allowed me to continue writing for TAW ever since. It s very much appreciated, mate.
A big thank you to Sandra Goldschmidt for also contributing and for lovely chats about Liverpool and BVB. I owe you a beer or two next time you re in London.
Also to Rory Smith, who is far too big and important to talk to the likes of me. Thanks for your involvement and for what was a really interesting chat about Klopp, football in general and the delights of walking through Bradford.
I m also tremendously grateful to Joe, Matt, John and Pep at LFC for their time and efforts in helping with this book.
I d be in big trouble if I didn t thank my mum, who has put up with so much football nonsense over the last few years that I d forgive her if she couldn t bring herself to actually read this book. Also thanks to my brother, Paul, who s been my match-going mate for life.
A shout as well to my writing partner in crime, Faz. We ve had so many chats down the years about football and writing that they undoubtedly shaped the idea of doing a book in the first place.
I have to give special thanks to Rich, Lawrence and James as well, though I can t for the life of me remember what for.
And of course the final thank you has to go to J rgen Norbert Klopp, without whom this book would have been fairly empty.
Introduction
I am the normal one, if you want this.
A ND there it was. J rgen Klopp had thrown the media a bone and they were more than willing to take it. It was his first press conference since being announced as manager of Liverpool Football Club and the charismatic German coach had already made very clear that he wasn t in England for the sake of the press. He wasn t dismissive, he knew he had a duty to do the media side of things, but he wanted to set the tone from the off. Everyone has told me about the British press, so it s up to you to show me they are all liars!
The room echoed with laughter, but as with most jokes, there was a truth behind it. Klopp wasn t here for the media, he was here to work with footballers.
On 16 June 1967, not quite one year after England had beaten West Germany in the World Cup Final, a baby boy by the name of J rgen Norbert Klopp was born in the city of Stuttgart to parents Norbert and Elisabeth. Soon after, they moved to the countryside where little J rgen would grow up in the Black Forest village of Glatten near Freudenstadt with his two older sisters.
Norbert was a travelling salesman of wall fittings by trade, but had shown promise in his early years of making a career in professional football as a goalkeeper. He had even had a trial at Kaiserslautern, but it was ultimately not to be and once J rgen arrived, Norbert felt it was his duty to give his son the best chance at succeeding where he hadn t.
Where most dads would play sport with their child and let them win to build self-esteem, Norbert believed this wouldn t bear the necessary results and character, and so decided to thrash poor J rgen at everything. Skiing, running, and in particular tennis, where he regularly beat his young son 6-0, 6-0.
In 2009, Klopp was interviewed by German national weekly paper Die Zeit where he said of his father, He was ruthless. When we went skiing, I only ever saw his red anorak from behind. He never waited for me. It didn t matter that I was just a beginner. He wanted me to become the perfect skier.
While it was not much fun for the youngster at the time, it was this harsh method of learning and motivating that would shape the expectation that Klopp has had of every player he has worked with. Give me everything you have to win. For me, attitude was always more important than talent.
In October 2015, Klopp was sitting in the press room at Melwood fielding questions from more journalists than could reasonably fit. More than an hour before the press conference began there was already no space to move in the media room. People were used to having to navigate past a handful of cameras, but there were now almost 20 of them.
This was big news. J rgen Klopp had been named as manager of Liverpool Football Club, and the world wanted to see his unveiling, whether it was to hear how he believed he could turn the fortunes of a once great club around, again, or just to see if he would come out with any characteristic Klopp-isms .
His quotes had become legendary, from describing new signing at Borussia Dortmund, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, as fitting his side like an arse in a bucket to claiming that he once told a fourth official, How many mistakes are allowed here? If it s 15, you have one more!
The journalists asking the questions were begging for a golden nugget from Klopp on his first outing in front of them, and set him up with a predictable question based around Jos Mourinho s infamous assertion that he was A Special One .
Klopp batted it away by saying that he was a normal person from the Black Forest, a quiet part of Germany. That his mother was maybe watching the press conference but would have not understood any of it, but is proud nonetheless, and reiterated that he was just a normal guy. Then he threw it out there. I am the normal one, if you want this.
Of course the parading of the new manager wasn t just for the benefit of the press. The Liverpool fans wanted to see their new man and hear what he had planned for their team. One of his closest friends at Mainz was Thomas Ziemer, who told the Daily Telegraph that he and Klopp had once put together a boy band to recreate All-4-One s 1994 hit I Swear . He was a friend of everybody at the club, from the president to the bus driver, says Ziemer. That s the personality of J rgen Klopp. He only has friends.
By the end of that first press conference, Klopp had tens of millions more.
He also let out a soundbite that would stick, that would bring everyone on board, suggesting that all involved at LFC would have a responsibility if success was going to follow. It was something people needed to hear. He shone a mirror up to Liverpool players and fans alike and said, We have to change from doubters to believers. Now.
At this moment all the LFC family is a little bit too nervous, a little bit too pessimistic, a little bit too much in doubt. They all celebrate the game and there is a fantastic atmosphere in the stadium, But they don t believe at the moment. They only see five years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago.
History is great. But only to remember. Now we have the possibility to write a new story if we want, but we have to clear a few things and maybe we can do this and be as successful as we can be.
The gauntlet had been laid down. The work was to begin.
1
I always said in that moment where I believe I am not the perfect coach any more for this extraordinary club, I will say so.
K LOPP is the first to admit that he had an unremarkable playing career. As a youngster he played for several lower league clubs, and in 1987 moved from 1. FC Pforzheim to Eintracht Frankfurt, where he multitasked expertly by playing for the amateur side, studying sport science and coaching the club s under-13 team.
Over the next couple of years he would also play for Viktoria Sindlingen and Rot-Weiss Frankfurt, before eventually ending up at FSV Mainz 05 in 1990, where he would remain for the rest of his career.
As a young VfB Stuttgart fan, Klopp s favourite player was centre-back Karlheinz F rster. He was an unspectacular, no-nonsense kind of defender, and Klopp was drawn to that. He was dedicated, intelligent, and above all else, played at full throttle. He was also only 5ft 10in, not ideal for a centre-back, but he made up for this with his attitude