CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PREMIER LEAGUE RETURNING TO THAT F**KING PERCH
Liverpool had won the Premier League seven days earlier, but Jurgen Klopp was angry.
As the Reds’ boss stood pitchside at the Etihad Stadium, fielding questions from Sky Sports’ roving reporter Geoff Shreeves, his agitation grew greater with every passing second. No matter that Liverpool had become league champions for the first time in 30 years, and that Klopp had been the man to deliver it with no fewer than seven games to spare. No matter that he had been the happiest man in the world earlier that week. His team had just lost 4-0 against closest challengers Manchester City, and he was irritated.
Eventually, growing tired of the interview, he put his hands on his hips as if gearing up for a stand-off. Then he let rip. “If you want to lead this story in a direction that we were not focused on that match, then do it,” the Reds’ head honcho hissed, misinterpreting an innocuous question as a grievous insult; a personal affront on his professionalism.
Rarely has a moment of historic glory been followed quite so fast by a moment of such hide-behind-the-sofa, toe-curling discomfort. But there have been few greater insights into the relentless mentality of Jurgen Klopp.
“The reason they’re going to be competing for a few years is because of that interview,” said pundit Roy Keane. “It was nothing to do with the questions he was being asked – he was just fuming because his team got beat.”
Keane was part of the Manchester United generation that shifted the balance of power in English football, as Sir Alex Ferguson’s men
