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It is not the first time that Jurgen Klopp has been asked and it will not be the last. But after Liverpool’s emotional victory over Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, he feels particularly pertinent. Is there really no way to convince him to stay?
Is there really nothing that will change your mind? Is there nothing that could make him reconsider the decision to leave Anfield at the end of this season after nine years in charge? Is there nothing to make you think that perhaps, in the modern Liverpool he has built, the best is yet to come?
Because there was something about the win over Chelsea and the way it was achieved, with a heady mix of masterful experience and optimistic youth, that made it look like it could be a transformative experience for everyone involved in the winning side. .
It seemed as if this was not an era that was coming to an end. It seemed as if this was an era that was just beginning. Klopp built a great team at Liverpool and it is starting to look like he has built another. He’s just in his first blossoming, but he has the feel of a group of players who could accomplish special things.
It is a shame to think that Klopp will not be around to enjoy the fruits of all the work he has put in and all the pressure he has endured. It’s a shame to think that he may not be around in the coming years to oversee the maturation of this group of players he has assembled. If there was anything about Sunday’s victory that was bittersweet, it was that.
Jurgen Klopp celebrates on the Wembley pitch after winning the Carabao Cup with Liverpool
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Former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher on Monday made an interesting comparison between Klopp and Bill Shankly, who was Liverpool manager from 1959 to 1974 and resigned suddenly when many felt he and his team were at the peak of their careers. powers.
Carragher noted that Shankly was the father of modern Liverpool and that although Bob Paisley, who succeeded him as manager, was in charge when Liverpool won the first three European Cups, Liverpool fans always recognized that “every trophy Liverpool raised between 1974-1990 had Shankly’s reflection on the cutlery.
And it will be the same with Klopp and whoever comes after. Because, if he really can’t be persuaded to stay, he will leave the club in such good shape that it looks like they will maintain their place at, or near, the top of English football for years to come. The next generation is already in place and raring to go.
Klopp, of course, has already anticipated attempts to force him to renege on his decision. He was honest about his reasons for leaving. He said that he could feel his energy waning and that his modus operandi meant that he could not operate unless full throttle.
Is there really no way to convince him to stay after what he achieved on Sunday?
There was something about the win over Chelsea and the way it was achieved
His combination of masterful experience and youth seemed as if this was an era that was just beginning.
“I can’t do it on three wheels,” he said when he announced his intention to leave late last month. ‘I don’t want to be a passenger. My management skills are based on energy and relationships. I am who I am and where I am because of how I am. I can’t be that anymore. My energy level was infinite but now it’s not anymore. “Now we have to change.”
There is no reason to think that Klopp’s intention has changed. Football management is a grueling, demanding and high-pressure job that takes its toll on everyone who does it. Klopp knows himself. He knows his family. He knows what is best for him and them.
But sometimes intentions change. Circumstances change. To expand on Carragher’s reference to Shankly, Shankly regretted his decision to resign and for a time frequented Liverpool’s former training ground at Melwood until the club had to ask him to stay away because it was affecting Paisley’s ability to perform. impose your authority on the team. .
And the reality is that, until Liverpool name a successor to Klopp, there will be hope against hope that he can be persuaded to change his mind. Sir Alex Ferguson did it once at Manchester United, don’t forget, and he won a second Champions League trophy.
And if Bayer Leverkusen coach and former Liverpool favorite Xabi Alonso decides to go to Bayern Munich next season rather than return to Merseyside, those hopes will come into sharper focus.
A part of every Liverpool fan will wonder if there is even a chance. They will wonder whether an experience like Sunday’s – a victory Klopp described as “easily the most special trophy” of his Liverpool career – could have a rejuvenating effect on the manager who has already given so much to his club.
It was clear, certainly, that he was moved by the maturity and excellence of the performances of academy products James McConnell, 19, Jayden Danns, 18, Bobby Clark, 19, Jarell Quansah, 21, and Conor Bradley, 20, who everyone played an important role in the triumph.
Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso has been linked with replacing Klopp at Liverpool
“Bobby Clark’s development is really crazy, I have to say,” Klopp said after the final whistle at Wembley. ‘The development of James McConnell is absolutely crazy. And Dannsy, I love him, since his first training.”
If this was the beginning of the end, then it will be a great final farewell for Klopp as he leads Liverpool in their quest for four trophies.
When Shankly resigned, when Kenny Dalglish resigned as manager, fans were never able to say a proper goodbye and the emotions that will be unleashed as Klopp’s departure approaches will fuel the club’s inclination towards all its glories.
He has made the decision to leave, but if managing at Anfield places demands on a person few of us can adequately understand, leaving Liverpool will be the toughest deal Klopp has ever struck.
Van Dijk proved his doubters wrong at Wembley
In the years since returning from a career-threatening knee injury, Virgil van Dijk has had to listen to repeated suggestions that he is no longer the same player he was before his injury.
He has proven those suggestions wrong time and time again and his masterful player of the match performance in the Carabao Cup final put him head and shoulders above any other defender on the field.
The Liverpool boys were showered with praise for their contribution to the victory over Chelsea, but Van Dijk showed once again why he is the team’s undisputed leader.
Virgil van Dijk has proven past his prime wrong time and time again
The Premier League takes a step in the right direction with Everton’s decision
The original 10-point deduction imposed on Everton for breaching spending rules was ridiculously harsh.
There was a distinct sense of punishment designed to encourage others. It may have had a welcome effect in curbing the outrageous spending of others later, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t patently unfair.
The four-point reduction in the penalty, decided by the Premier League appeals board and announced on Monday, is a welcome step in the right direction and a credit to the reasoned arguments Everton have put forward in their defence. However, if the club is punished for a second charge it faces, any relief will be short-lived.
Chelsea is synonymous with waste of money
After the Carabao Cup final, the prize for missing the point went to a doggedly determined group of number-crunchers who calculated that the average age of the Chelsea team that finished the game was younger than Liverpool’s.
Congratulations on your insight and good luck in locating your soul one day. Because even if the facts are correct, they also help tell the story of why Chelsea are, in their current form, synonymous with wasting a lot of money.
Malo Gusto, Chelsea’s excellent right back, was the youngest Chelsea player to finish the match. He has 20 years. Chelsea paid Lyon 30 million pounds for him. Levi Colwill, another excellent defender, was the next youngest. He is 21 years old and is a product of Chelsea’s training system.
Next up is Cole Palmer. He’s 21, he’s a languidly brilliant midfielder and he cost £42m. Then it’s Noni Madueke. He is also 21 years old and cost £35m. And then there is Moisés Caicedo. He is 22 years old, cost 115 million pounds and is the most expensive player in British transfer history. So it’s Mykhailo Mudryk. He is 23 years old and cost 88 million pounds.
Chelsea thought they could invest £1 billion in players and created a Frankenstein’s Monster-type team that Mauricio Pochettino is still desperately trying to put together.
I could go on and mention Enzo Fernandez, who is 23, won the World Cup and cost £105m, but now even the brains at Chelsea’s statistics department who have apparently built models that suggest they are actually fifth in the Premier League. , not the eleventh, they probably got the point.
The thing is, Chelsea co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali thought they could buy a youth team. They threw a billion pounds into the situation and created a Frankenstein monster team that Mauricio Pochettino is still desperately trying to turn into a unit with some kind of esprit de corps. Liverpool and Klopp did it differently.