Jurgen Klopp has paid an emotional tribute to the people of the city of Liverpool as he prepares to say farewell this summer.
The German will take charge of his final game as Reds manager on Sunday when Wolves travel to Anfield to bookend the Premier League season.
And it is sure to be a poignant afternoon given that his relationship with supporters is not just simply down to the many trophies he has brought to the club.
It instead owes much to Klopp’s intrinsic understanding of the city he has called home across eight-and-a-half years.
When asked to explain why the bond has been so strong, he replied: “I can’t. I tried to explain why I like the people so much, why the people like me so much. How can I describe that? I don’t understand it properly.
“I know the manager of Liverpool, before you put a step on the pitch people like you until you disappoint them.
“We never really disappointed them, I think, in general, it was alright. But you realise now as well that the club means so much to so many people, it’s crazy.
“I’ll use this opportunity to apologise because over the years – now in the last few weeks it was really extreme – I got emails, letters.
“If I start answering them, I sit here until 2028, it’s just too much. Some of them I read, I didn’t read all of them. I couldn’t organise tickets for the last game, there were a lot of requests as well.
“And yesterday for LFCTV I had to read letters, and one of them I burst into tears.
“The stories behind what it meant to the people and what we did over these nine years and how their life changed in these nine years.
“I know that football can do that to people, can do it to a city, and we did that. But the thing is now, people might think that I leave and it’s gone, but it’s not because experiences are there to learn from.
“And if you all experienced now that the way we felt, the way we bought into it, led to how happy we were, then keep doing that for the next generation, the next team, the next manager, and you will feel the same way.
“Because the support does not depend on people, not at all, it’s about the club. It was before me about the club and it will be after me about the club, and that’s how it should be.
“But we have very, very special supporters and the last nine years meant the world to them, and I’m happy about that.”
Klopp also reflected on the honour of being awarded the freedom of the city back in 2022, insisting he will return whenever called upon, even if not in a footballing capacity.
He continued: “We are the ambassadors of our people, we have to fulfil their dreams, [or] we try, cannot guarantee that but we try. We have to fight extremely hard because they fight extremely hard, that’s how I always understood it. And we always did it.
“These thoughts fitted to the people’s thoughts like a glove to the people’s thoughts and that’s why it was pretty special. It’s a very, very, very special city.
“Nothing is perfect nowadays, but the majority of people in this city…the way they deal with life, the way they welcome you, the way they treat you.
“And I don’t mean me, anyone who comes to the club and arrives in this city tells me.
“I don’t imagine the club will need my help in the future, but if the city needs me, I’m there. I want to be helpful in whatever way.”
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