Klopp Watch: Liverpool manager swears at media and binds Reds fans
Klopp Watch – a look at the news Liverpool manger Jurgen Klopp in the news. Matt Dickinson tells Times readers he “fears that the charm offensive won’t last”.
Klopp is the current media darling. It used to be Jose Mourinho they loved and before that Harry Redknapp. But Jose is now presented as toxic by the righteous and right-on and Redknapp’s been rumbled.
Says Dickenson:
As José Mourinho finds fresh conflict and conspiracy everywhere he turns, at least there is that lovely Jürgen Klopp to keep us smiling. Ah yes, the “normal one” with his cool jeans-jacket combo, his self-deprecation, the twinkle in his eye and stylish stubble on his rugged chin. Klopp is the future — bright, optimistic — like Mourinho used to be. Or so we like to think.
We then get to realise that anyone who got to the top of German football didn’t do it by grinning alone:
Blaming his woes on referees? Klopp can resort to that cheap tactic along with the worst of them. A check of his misdemeanours shows that he has been sent to the stands at least eight times for volcanic explosions. Patronising to journalists? Klopp can charm but he can also pull off a world-class sneer. You might think that is no bad thing — the media dish it out, we should take it too — but belittling hacks does not tend to play well beyond a club’s supporters.
Nigel Pearson’s belittling played out badly with pretty much everyone. And if Klopp’s words can bind Reds fans, so be it. Maybe he can share a few words with a Sun journalist and really win them over?
How long before Klopp is snapping like he did at Borussia Dortmund in a press conference when it was pointed out by someone from the club’s website that he was on a losing run against Hamburg: “The last thing I need is for you to bring that up, a***hole”.
Make a nice change from Mourinho’s too-clever-by-half rhetoric. Klopp’s “dark side” looks refreshingly normal.
Read it all here.
Posted: 17th, October 2015 | In: Liverpool, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
