After James Milner made headlines with a story of Jurgen Klopp telling him to “shut the f*** up,” the Liverpool manager gave a brilliant response to fans.
In a podcast appearance this week, Milner recalled his time at Liverpool with fondness, not least his relationship with Klopp.
But the veteran midfielder also revealed the time he received a terse warning from the manager, after giving his opinion during a difficult half-time meeting.
“He was pretty good most of the time, he was open,” Milner explained.
“Maybe not at half-time. We had one time where he was sharing his thoughts, I was sharing mine and I remember him smashing his hands down on the table, ‘will you shut the fuck up?!’.”
Milner was full of praise for Klopp both on and off the pitch, though, and in particular his willingness to listen and adapt his methods.
“Jurgen was brilliant, had a great relationship with him. Great man off the field as well, supported our charity so much. Amazing manager,” he continued.
“I always felt like most of the time he was open.
“And even if he didn’t feel like in the conversation he gave you stuff back, I felt like he thought about it afterwards, and even if he didn’t tell you that, you’d maybe see with how he did things after.
“He’s the leader, he makes the decision, but maybe if you’ve put something in his head and it helped, he was pretty good at listening to things like that.
“I saw him change a lot in the time we were there.”
Klopp showed as much as he addressed supporters at a live Q&A during Monday’s test event for the new Anfield Road Stand, speaking about the evolution of his squad.
The manager revealed that he had listened to the podcast – and said one of his “dreams came true” in seeing the love Milner had for his time at Liverpool.
“It’s a wonderful squad, with fantastic personalities. I said early in the season, it’s really easy to fall in love with this team,” Klopp told fans.
“That’s after having a team, which we had in the past, which won absolutely everything for this club, [with] exceptional characters.
“James Milner had, in a podcast, a bit of insight into things that happened in the dressing room…
“I was listening to it and actually one of my dreams came true, that when one of my former players talks about our common past they cannot avoid smiling all the time. That was exactly what happened.
“So many great things happened here in the last few years, and this team is set up to create stories for the future. It’s a really wonderful squad we have today.”
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