A nice read.
Nice article in general but the point about big highs and big lows is misleading. The highs were huge, PL champions, CL champions, champions of the world. For a period of 2-3 years, Liverpool were among the best, if not the best team in the world and they played like it.
The lows? Coming in twice 3rd, while sustaining horrific injury crises, and a 5th place finish are nothing in comparison to where we were when he took charge. Finishing 3rd would be viewed as a good result in most years since the early nineties. He has had one truly bad season and even then there were extenuating circumstances. These are no real lows, it was all one big high, our most succesful period in more than 30 years for which every Liverpool supporter is immeasurably grateful for.
I appreciated the usage of 115.
Very well said.
The biggest low you can experience as a Liverpool fan is not the pain of missing out from a final loss or a title push that comes up short, it the loss of hope and excitement that comes with a tenure like the post-Suarez era Rodgers, or the whole of Royball, where you no longer even care about our games. Hearing City come back from 2 goals down against Villa on the last day was a sickening feeling, but the point of football is to feel something from it. A whole season of excitement, with a sudden feeling of sickness that gradually makes way for admiration for what the team has given you is not a low.
What made it far worse was that, even back then, we LFC fans were all aware of the financial cheating that had gone on and was still going on. It seemed back then also that we, as LFC supporters, were the ONLY fans who complaining openly about it. The rest of football seemed either completely unaware of it (!!!) or were totally complacent about it. Thankfully that particular worm has now turned but there has been so much damage done with no repercussions (thus far) to speak of that it has turned the Premier League competition into a farce.
The sadness that I feel because he’s leaving the way he’s leaving (jaded and with no big trophy parade) is probably the saddest I felt as a Liverpool fan. One of the big changes he brought with him was that we had something to play for every season until the end of it, even if it ended in disappointment quite a few times. But, we still had something to play for in May and this is the only season where we actually didn’t, which makes it ironic on so many levels.
The man didn’t deserve such turn of events, just like he didn’t deserve Sevilla players not getting penalised for playing basketball in their box, Karius saving the mother of all bad performances for the biggest game of his career, or his Liverpool team getting shafted by referees in Man City’s favour.
I know I’ll carry this sadness for as long as I live, just like I will carry all the happy moments he brought us. It’s actually not as melodramatic as it sounds, I’m just using the simple terms. I don’t know if he’ll ever get a proper compensation for that but I believe in universal balance and I hope that he will be feeling at least the same combined amount of happiness we all felt because of him for as long as he breathes.
I am sad but I’m also kind of happy for him. He seems relaxed and at peace with the decision he’s made. He doesn’t owe us anything and it’s time he enjoys his time away from the limelight. If anything, we as fans feel more downbeat about it than he does.
He did deserve to win more, a lot more but he is a textbook case of good guys finishing last. If you can call 8 major trophies and reviving a sleeping giant finishing last. Besides, the way he is, he values the adulation from millions of Reds all around the world more than any trophy that eluded him one way or another.
Warning: do not watch this if you are soft-hearted. I’m tough as you know and so I watched it without a problem. Good luck to you.
I’m not going to watch it because it’s bound to be sentimental drivel.
Joyce:
“Klopp has always been loyal to his squad, too loyal in some cases.
“James Milner and Roberto Firmino would have received new contracts last summer had Klopp got his way. Henderson and Fabinho were not pushed out; they forced their way out.”
Oh boy Jurgen…
Agreeance. Same goes for me. We aren’t my target audience.
Ya old softie.