Jurgen Klopp says final Liverpool days are ‘most intense week of life’

Jurgen Klopp has described his final days in charge of Liverpool as the ‘most intense week of my life’ as the club’s fans prepare for their beloved manager’s final game.

The 56-year-old’s long goodbye to the red half of the city started at the end of January with the shock news he had chosen to end his time at the club and it will culminate in an emotional farewell at Anfield against Wolves on Sunday from 4pm.

Klopp is expected to retire to Mallorca where he is demolishing and rebuilding a £3.4million mansion to create an ‘ecological family paradise’ with his wife Ulla.

He spoke at a press conference today before his final match on Sunday, following a barbecue with his players yesterday and another with team staff on Wednesday.

Klopp described the ‘most intense week of my life’, adding: ‘Great moments already, we don’t have to pretend it’s a normal week because it isn’t. I’m a very pragmatic person I have been saying it’s last game and then holidays, business as usual.

‘We had a barbecue here yesterday with the players. The day before with the staff from Chapel Street. It’s a lot. Saying goodbye is never nice. But saying goodbye without feeling sad would mean the time we spent together wasn’t great.’

Klopp has spent more than eight years as Liverpool manager since being appointed in October 2015 – and his successor is expected to be Feyenoord’s Arne Slot.

The German has overseen tremendous success over that period, winning a Premier League title, a FA Cup, two Carabao Cups, a Champions League win and a Club World Cup.

However, Klopp said today: ‘I know we could have won more. But I’m fine. We could have won less.’

He added: ‘It’s nearly a decade of my life and super influential. I love everything about this place. I take fantastic memories with me, friendships, relationships, forever.

‘The older you get, when time slips through fingers, you go ‘my God, that was quick’. I don’t feel it was quick. I really think it was the absolute opposite of a waste of time.

‘We tried to use everything and enjoy it as much as possible. A decade is a long time but I will not forget a day in that time, I met the best people I ever met and for the best club I could have imagined.’

Klopp continued: ‘I did this in a special city. The people, how they treat you when they meet you and how they describe me is the people of Liverpool. I got the keys to the city and for me it feels like responsibility. If the city needs me I am there in future.’

Speaking about Anfield, he described it as a ‘super, super special place because of the people’, adding: ‘It’s a nice stadium but the people make it exceptional.’

While Liverpool’s players may have already gone through various stages of the grieving process relating to Klopp’s departure, a leading sports psychologist in the city said there is still some way to go for fans.

There will undoubtedly be tears at the loss of a beloved manager but Dr Gillian Cook, a senior lecturer in sport and performance psychology at Liverpool John Moores University, believes Klopp’s squad will already be a long way through the process.

However he said it will be different for fans, who have embraced the journey Klopp took them on and, in many cases, enjoyed that more than the actual winning of trophies – Klopp’s last with the club coming in February’s Carabao Cup final, a month after his announcement.

Klopp instantly struck a chord with supporters and has won their hearts more than any other Liverpool manager since Bill Shankly.

Dr Cook said: ‘Emotion is very much linked to memory so we remember the big highs and lows and that is very much what Klopp has brought over the last nine seasons with a huge amount of bonding experiences.

‘Grief is the word I would use to describe the process of what fans are going through; all the outpouring of emotion on social media. He very much connected with the fans and they are losing him so it is grief.

‘There will be disappointment at the way the season has ended up because I think fans would have wanted to send him off in good fashion with (another) trophy.

‘The season has petered out so that won’t happen but I anticipate seeing cameras panning in on people in the crowd crying at the end of 90 minutes because there will be that profound sense of loss and then wondering what happens next.’

During today’s press conference, Klopp also admitted he would vote for scrapping VAR because the officials in charge of it ‘are not able to use it properly’.

Wolves submitted a resolution on Wednesday calling for a vote by Premier League clubs to scrap the system at the league’s annual general meeting.

While Liverpool’s hierarchy are not understood to be supportive of scrapping it, Klopp believes if it is not applied correctly then it is not worth keeping.

‘I don’t think they’re voting against VAR, I think they’ll vote about how it gets used, because that’s definitely not right. I understand that,’ he said.

‘In the way they do it, I would vote against it, because these people are not able to use it properly.

‘I do not think VAR is the problem but the way we use it is the problem. So, you cannot change the people obviously, it’s clear. You need them. So yeah, I would vote for scrapping VAR.’

Also today, Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk admitted he would be forever grateful to ‘icon’ Klopp for helping shape his successful career.

The Netherlands international was singled out by Klopp as the man he wanted to build his defence around in the summer of 2017 but, after a bungled transfer bid which eventually cost the club an additional £10million as he became the world’s most expensive defender for £75million, he eventually joined six months later.

The fact Klopp did not immediately move on to another target and was prepared to wait has never been forgotten by the Dutchman.

‘Obviously he means a lot to me. He is one of the reasons I wanted to join the club,’ Van Dijk said. ‘He is a special character definitely. He is an icon.

‘He wanted me and me only, he felt I was a big part of the success that could happen and I could definitely contribute to that. I am glad that it all went well.

‘The club is one of the big reasons but it was the whole package and the manager has been great.’

Van Dijk added: ‘He has been a big part of my success and in my career and I will be forever grateful for that.’

Former winger John Barnes believes Klopp’s influence can only be compared with the man who began the club’s revolution in late 1959.

‘For me Bill Shankly and Jurgen are the two greatest managers Liverpool have had,’ he said.

‘Because it is always harder to start something than continue it and Jurgen had to restart in terms of where we were to put us back to where we are.

‘From where we where to what he has done, taking us right back up to the top alongside Manchester City, that for me is the legacy, bringing Liverpool back to where they belong.

‘A manager coming after is coming at a better time than when Jurgen came in, with a better team than when Jurgen came and with a chance of continuing Jurgen’s legacy.’

Barnes’ former team-mate Jan Molby believes Klopp’s biggest contribution will be remembered not for the trophies which were won but the journey he took fans on.

‘People are very quick trying to compare Klopp to some of the biggest managers in Liverpool’s history,’ said the former Denmark international.

‘You can only compare on trophies and in that respect he doesn’t come out very well because they won a lot more.

‘In years to come we will remember Klopp for the man he was and the impact he had, not that he won the Premier League and the Champions League, because we had managers who have outdone him on that front.

‘We can all see what he has done as a football manager so I think it will be more of his human traits than just basically winning trophies.

‘His legacy is almost as big behind the scenes for the local community. I think Klopp will come out of this with a lot of people having individual stories about Klopp and the impact he has had on their lives.’