Klopp explains that the culture of doing “things differently” at Anfield gives him the passion to continue striving for excellence after signing a new contract
“We do things differently here… and I love that.” In that one sentence, Jurgen Klopp summed up not only his philosophy but his reasons for continuing in one of the most stressful roles in world sport.
Many had assumed the Liverpool manager would walk away in 2024 after eight years at the helm of one of football’s biggest names, because of the insane demands of such a high-profile job. Yet for Klopp, there is one overriding reason to stay: it’s not the money – “it was never necessary to negotiate that”, he explained; not even the glory, or the success he and his magnificent squad have delivered. It was always about the culture of Liverpool, which is set by history, for sure, but more importantly, by its fans.
So while the Reds are necessarily a global, money-spinning entity, they are still held to account by their fans. And because of his own personal morals and ethics, that is something Klopp buys into passionately. “The culture is set by the people and that is easy to love,” he suggested.
“There are other clubs out there who do it in a different way but here the culture is set up by the people – not by different owners, different coaches, different players. It’s much nicer, I love it, that we are so close together. Here it is a must. If we are here, then we had better enjoy it… and that is very easy for me. If that is not us, then we have to adapt to that, not the other way around.”
This is a manager who turned down Manchester United after traveling to speak to their executives because they appeared “too corporate”. He knows Liverpool’s owners are far from saints, with some serious missteps recently over the despised Super League nonsense, staff furloughs during Covid, and even pricing local fans out of the stadium.
Yet amongst all the biggest clubs in world football, Liverpool is the one who doesn’t have bottomless resources; they are the ones who don’t have oligarchs or nations owning them, the super-rich with their dubious motivations. And he is not only fine with that; he is proud of it, which explains why he is prepared to stay even longer, as he plots to challenge those clubs on the pitch, even if he can’t – really – off it, in a financial sense. They visit Newcastle this weekend knowing within a couple of years, the Saudi Arabia-owned club will have spent more than Klopp has in all his time at Anfield. But he explained that money (at those levels) isn’t everything.
Im very pleased to find this site. I need to to thank you for ones time for this particularly fantastic read!! I definitely really liked every part of it and I have you bookmarked to see new information on your site.