Jurgen Klopp pokes fun at Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea as part of final Liverpool farewell
Jurgen Klopp took sly digs at Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea during the final stop of his Liverpool farewell tour.
The German stepped down from his role as the Reds‘ manager at the end of the 2023/24 season, bringing an end to a memorable nine-year tenure at Anfield.
He managed his final game for the club on 19 May – a 2-0 win at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers – before seeing out his tenure with an event at the M&S Bank Arena on Tuesday night, hosted by comedian and lifelong Liverpool fan John Bishop.
Klopp intimated that among several topics, including VAR and 12:30 kick-offs, he was told not to talk about City. But when it was put to him by Bishop that Liverpool could be awarded two further titles if the Premier League take action against City for 115 breaches of financial regulations, Klopp replied: „If you organise a bus parade, I’m in. How long it takes, I don’t care how long.“
City were not the only rival Klopp took a swipe at, turning to United to suggest they handled the signing of Jadon Sancho poorly.
„If the whole world loses trust and faith in the player, the manager has to be the one behind the player,“ Klopp said when discussing his man-management style.
„I cannot just buy into that ‚he’s useless‘, like other clubs did by the way – buying a player for £80m and then sending him out on loan!“ he added, referring to United’s decision to send Sancho back to Borussia Dortmund in January.
Klopp also took time to defend Liverpool’s divisive FSG owners, intimating he would much rather work under them than Todd Boehly and BlueCo at Chelsea after the surprise exit of head coach Mauricio Pochettino.
„The owners do what owners do,“ Klopp continued. „Surprise! The owners want to earn money. Sorry to tell you that.
„It’s not like they earn money on a daily basis: they invest something and that’s how the whole world goes.
„We should be really happy we have them and not guys who bought London clubs. I wouldn’t have survived a year at Liverpool (with them).
„Finally they (Chelsea) play football which everyone thinks ‚Oh, they might be back‘ and then they sack the manager anyway!“