Jurgen Klopp is just starting at Liverpool.
His arrival in October 2015 was soon welcomed because Klopp and Anfield immediately began to look like a good fit.
He looked and sounded like the right man for the job.
And still does. As I said at the time, he’s a great cheerleader, he’s Kevin Keegan with qualifications.
In Kiev yesterday, Klopp said. he said, “Nobody expected us to be here.”
While Zidane insisted, “It’s a 50/50 game.”
Liverpool’s proud history has been kept alive since the legendary Bill Shankly died in 1981, after managing the club from 1959 to 1974, the club produced many exciting campaigns and five European Cup; victories.
When six players carried Shankly’s coffin out of the St Mary’s Church in West Derby, the organist played You’ll Never Walk Alone.
Liverpool had been relegated to the Second Division in 1954 and had six seasons when they had finished in the top four but did not achieve promotion. But Shankly rebuilt the team by signing Ron Yeats, a colossus at centre half, Ian St. John, a clever Scottish striker, and winger Peter Thompson.
One day a poster outside a Liverpool church asked, What will you do when the Lord comes? A fan’s grafitti soon provided the answer: Move St. John to inside left!
In 1974 Liverpool reached the FA Cup Final and after they beat Newcastle at Wembley, Shankly saluted the supporters near the tunnel as he was walked off. Some fans climbed the barriers to kiss his feet.
After the funeral, Ron Yeats said, “He was a great man. You could not talk to him, you listened. His motivation could move mountains.”
But times have changed a helluva lot. Footballers and managers are very different these days, and the bosses less strict.
Yes, Jurgen Klopp listens to his players. Then, like Shankly, he makes them believe.
Tonight’s match in Kiev?
My biggest worry is 45-year-old Serbian referee Mario Mazic, who has shown 18 yellow cards in his five Champions League games but no reds so far.
The match kicks off at 7.45 and any player can score, even defensive midfielder Casemiro. I’m hoping Virgil Van Dijk plays the game of his life and heads the winner.
But if the score is 1-1 in stoppage time, I expect Real Madrid to be given a soft penalty.