„Kloppo“ seemed to come and go like a whirlwind, seemingly burnt out having rescued his Dortmund team to the relatively humble position of seventh place (and a Europa League spot) after unthinkably spending the winter break of 2014-15 rock bottom in the Bundesliga.
All this after a heaven-storming few years that saw him take a previously bankrupt German footballing giant first to a previously barely imaginable fifth place and then, gloriously, to not just one but two gripping title successes, blowing away all opponents including the increasingly mature and complete Bayern Munich squad under Jupp Heynckes that won the treble of domestic league and cup as well as the European Cup triumph against Klopp’s BVB team that – in arguably their biggest achievement – fought them all the way to the 90th minute of that final.
To think of Jürgen Klopp purely in such melodramatic, romantic terms, however, would be to do him a disservice as well as to underplay his vast achievement in making world-beaters once again of a club reduced to a bankrupt rabble through its previous hubristic overspending and mismanagement.
He certainly looks, and should be, the perfect fit for a true „Traditionsclub“ desperate to recapture the former glories that should, fans will think, be Liverpool’s by right; but shocks are in store for both the new manager (happy as he may be to cede many transfer responsibilities to his „superiors“), and for the players and employees who will encounter a fiercely determined taskmaster who will stop at little to impose his passionate vision of pressing and (counter)attacking football on his new project.
He is indeed a hugely sympathetic, engaging and superficially laid-back character, the kind who – perhaps uniquely among his peers – will voluntarily offer up to interviewers a description of the first pornographic motion picture he watched as a youngster; but far more than that, he is a formidable sporting intellect who poses as much of a challenge to his new club as it will to him. Liverpool – and the Premier League – look out!