Scousers don’t often adopt outsiders. Being scouse is a birth right. It can’t be imitated or manufactured. Its embedded in our values, our traditions, our way of life, and most of it is centred around football and having a laugh. So how has a badly shaved, cap wearing German won over our hearts? Simple, he gets us.

Being the manager of Liverpool is the best and hardest job in the world. Our hopes, dreams and pride rely on our football team. Honestly, if Liverpool lose its hard to get any words out of me for the rest of the day. As Shankly once said, “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I can assure them it is much more serious than that” and in Liverpool it is.

Our expectations, especially around the league title, has made a number of Liverpool teams and their managers crumble and our hunger for league title number 19 has grown with each passing year. Jurgen Klopp is going to be the first man in 30 years to turn this around and no worldwide pandemic is going to stop him (touch wood!).

The first thing Klopp said when he came to Liverpool is “We need to change from doubters to believers” and we haven’t looked back since. In his first season he took us to a league cup final and Europa League final. Despite losing them both we felt like the journey was just starting. Since then we have become Champions League winners, European Super Cup winners, FIFA World Cup winners, and will soon be crowned Premier League winners, all within the space of four years. We’re back on our perch and you can print that.

He has turned a team of, quite frankly, bottle jobs into the best team in the world, something we haven’t been able to boast about in my lifetime. We are now a team who works hard, constantly pressing and battling for every first and second ball; a team who plays quick, entertaining and direct football; and most importantly, we are a team with bags of character and a winning mentality, and all of this comes from one man. Jurgen Norbert Klopp. This Liverpool team are a carbon copy of their manager and its there for everyone to see.

Its impressive stuff but its more than just what happens on the pitch. He has taken time to understand what it is to be a Liverpudlian. He understands our history, our humour, our working class and socialist values, our culture, but most of all our pride of being scouse. He’s bought into our way of life and embedded it back into Liverpool Football Club. In my 26 years of supporting Liverpool I’ve never seen the club and fans as together as we are now. The club has its identity back and we’re all in it together.

Above all of this, Klopp just comes across as a genuinely brilliant human and I think even fans from other teams would admit it’s hard to hate him. My favourite quality about Klopp is his honest, no-nonsense demeanour. He is unapologetically himself and wears his heart on his sleeve for the world to see. When he wins he is ecstatic, when he draws he is mellow and when he loses he is furious and I have to say I love it. No matter what, you will never get a politician’s answer from Klopp, he says it as it is and what he says never seems to be wrong. The man just talks common sense.

Despite him being the best manager in the world, and all of the things he has achieved along the way, he is just an ordinary fella and he wouldn’t want to be classed as otherwise. Everyone can relate to him. He works hard, loves a beer, and loves a laugh with the lads. The normal one.

Most importantly for me, Klopp’s love of our city and its people really shines through. He gets us. No matter what happens in the next few years, Klopp’s name will always remain embedded in Liverpool legend and he will always be welcomed with open arms to the city.

Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool, a match made in heaven.

Words by Ben Murray
Header image GETTY
For Cult Kits Ltd.