Earlier this 2019/20 season, ahead of Liverpool’s Super Cup match
against Chelsea in Istanbul, manager Jürgen Klopp was asked
the following questions at a UEFA press-conference...
“WITHOUT HIM THIS CLUB
WOULDN’T BE THE SAME”
What was it like for you personally, to get your hands on that Champions
League trophy?
“It was really nice, it was overwhelming. But touching the trophy is not
something you really need in life. Winning it, if you have the opportunity, is
completely diferent, so I enjoyed that much more than holding the trophy
by myself. Watching all the others holding it, to be honest, was nice...”It was a moment of huge history and this club’s all about history,
particularly in the European Cup. What would Bill Shankly have made of
that achievement, do you think?
[Laughter] “I’ve no idea. Unfortunately we never met. That’s a shame,
honestly. You know, when people talk about Bill Shankly, it’s not true that
he was a human being! If you hear people talking about him, he could do
pretty much everything. I like that, when people are remembered like that.
“Nobody will ever be as big as he was because he had very diicult
circumstances when he started, obviously. He built that club from the
ground and that’s an achievement.
“Thankfully nobody has to do that or it’s a job nobody has to do
anymore because the club has now reached a size and a status where
things like that will never happen again – but without him this club
wouldn’t be the same.
“What would he have done with it? I think he would have said: ‘Yes, nice,
let’s go for the next one’.”SHANKLY 59