Jurgen Klopp kicked off the construction work on Liverpool’s Anfield Road stand expansion, praising the impact of supporters and the continued investment from FSG.
Contractors the Buckingham Group have officially begun the latest Anfield expansion after three months of groundwork, with a ceremony held outside the stadium on Thursday.
Klopp, along with club legends Sir Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Phil Neal, John Aldridge, chief executive Billy Hogan and managing director Andy Hughes, was present as work began to add 7,000 seats to the Anfield Road stand.
A new upper tier will be constructed outside the existing structure, with no impact on the normal matchday experience for fans attending between now and the start of 2023/24.
That season is set to be Klopp’s final campaign as Liverpool manager, with the German speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony in praise of the supporters and Fenway Sports Group.
“The difference, you can see that now: we play with supporters again and everything is much better,” he told the assembled media.
“Much more emotional, much more driven. Everything is better with fans.
“But 53,000 were not bad, to be honest, it already feels like 100,000. I cannot imagine how 60,000 will feel. I really love the idea.
“Since I’m here – and not because I’m here but since I’m here – so many things happened which obviously show [the importance of fans].
“With all the great history of this club, and building the future as well: the training ground, the Main Stand and now this new stand. It’s absolutely incredible.
“It’s very important, I know there is some criticism in moments where we don’t invest – but this club always invested, just slightly differently. I like the idea of that.
“I just hope the building process will be a little bit quicker than your speech [joke to Buckingham Group representative], because then I will have a few games in this [expanded] stadium! That would be really great.”
Work is scheduled to be complete in time for the 2023/24 season, which is set to be Klopp’s final year under his current contract.
The new overall capacity will be around 61,000 – the third-largest Premier League stadium – with 7,000 added to the current capacity.
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