Winning is important, but it’s not everything. Building a team and creating a legacy is what truly matters. – Kenny Dalglish
“For a player to be good enough to play for Liverpool, he must be prepared to run through a brick wall for me, and then come out fighting on the other side.” – Bill Shankly
“This club has been my life. I’d go out and sweep the street and be proud to do it for Liverpool FC, if they asked me to.” – Bob Paisley
The thing about getting to my age is that there’s so much more behind you than in front of you.
I was poignantly reminded of this on a wonderful, final afternoon of English Premier League football on Sunday.
It was goodbye to Jurgen Klopp, the manager who re-energised, and restored my faith, in my beloved Liverpool Football Club.
And, with that, it culminated in a wistful glance down the years – and the many, many memories linked to my decades of avidly following the Anfield club.
While Liverpool, the city, may be many miles from Factreton, South Africa, where I grew up, the success and style of that football team sustained me during the difficult, turbulent apartheid years.
Because, while the Liverpool memories of the 70s and 80s are still so vivid, the oppression faced by this young kid on the streets of Factreton are just as palpable.
That’s the bitter-sweet reality of a trip down memory lane – and why the past always, always reverberates inside me like a rapidly beating drum.
My obsession with Liverpool dates all the way back to 1977, when Liverpool manager Bob Paisley paid a British transfer record of £440 000 [sounds a bit laughable now, considering today’s transfer fees] to bring Kenny Dalglish to Liverpool.
While television was new to SA at the time, and the Reiners household never had the privilege of owning one back then, my love for football was satisfied with weekly magazines, like Roy of the Rovers, Shoot, Match, Tiger and others. And, every Saturday, my mates and I would hop onto a bus to catch the weekly highlights package of English football at a place in the City Centre.
On the first occasion I saw Dalglish in action, that was it: I was hooked. I was a Liverpool fan. And, still today, that hasn’t changed.
After many years in the doldrums from the 1990s onwards, the arrival of Klopp changed all that.
He made Liverpool fans believe again, he ended a three-decade wait for the English Premier League title, as well the European Champions League, the FA Cup and two League Cups.
More importantly, though, it wasn’t just about the trophies, it was about returning Liverpool to the upper echelons of world football.
Liverpool are no longer among the also-rans, they are mentioned in the same breath as Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Inter Milan, Paris St Germain, Bayern Munich…
Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Dalglish ushered in the glory years… Klopp’s tenure will be remembered with just as much fondness and enthusiasm.
A few years ago, when Klopp was in Cape Town, I had the privilege of meeting and interacting with him during an event at the Hout Bay Market. It was an absolute pleasure. He was just a delight to chat to…
The German manager’s “heavy metal” style of football – the high-intensity, fast-paced, relentless counter-press and incisive attacking intent – won’t ever be forgotten.
To use Klopp’s own words: “Arsene Wenger likes having the ball, playing football, passes. It’s like an orchestra. It’s a silent song… But I like heavy metal more. I always want it loud.”
There have been so many memorable games during the Klopp era – but, for me, one will always be at the forefront of my recollection: 7 May 2019.
Down 3-0 in the European Champions League semi-final against Barcelona, Liverpool stormed back to win the second leg 4-0 [4-3 on aggregate]… Who will ever forget Trent Alexander-Arnold’s impudent corner-kick, which led to Divock Origi’s winner?? I won’t. Liverpool fans all over the world won’t. And Klopp, most certainly, won’t.
So, in bidding the great man farewell, all that’s left to say is: Thank you. The memories are forever.
In fact, perhaps it’s best for Klopp to have the final word himself.
In an interview with Kelly Cates [Dalglish’s daughter], Klopp summed up his philosophy of football and his time at Liverpool as follows:
“On the level we play, for so many people in the world it means the world to them during these 90 minutes, so we have to give our all. And to give your all without emotions, it’s absolutely not possible. You cannot always control and pass the ball here, and pass the ball there, and chip it over him – that doesn’t work like that and that’s what I love the most about the game. It’s the mix of all these pieces, like tactical things, like physical things, like emotions and all these kind of things. That makes football so super-special. And the people here see football as kind of a mirror of their life. So, we don’t have the best circumstances, we don’t have the best upcoming, we have struggles here, difficulties here, but when we are together we can conquer the whole world, and that’s what we want to do and what we want to see.”
Rodney Reiners 