Stop the Klopp hysteria – Liverpool will go on and a title and Champions League each is good, not great

The deification of a departing Jurgen Klopp makes absolutely no sense. Liverpool will move on and he will soon be forgotten, just as he’d want.

You’re no-one unless you’ve written a Jurgen Klopp feature this week. And here I am.

I’m as appreciative of his work as any football fan and was surprised at the announcement of his imminent resignation but the subsequent wailing and gnashing of teeth has been over the top. He hasn’t died, he’s just quit while he’s ahead. Liverpool continue. Clubs always do. It’s important in this cult of personality age that we realise the club is always bigger than players, managers, the chair, CEO, owners, everyone.

This kind of ‘I wish he was my dad’ lachrymose, greasy spirit is all part of football’s stunted development. It’s too often sickly and silly. If I see one more ‘I love this guy’ comment I’ll burst into flames. It’s infantile. And you don’t mean it. You don’t know him; he’s not your partner. He’s just doing a job and you can enjoy a manager’s attitude without deifying the man, which is what tends to happen. Enjoy him but keep it in perspective. I’m sure that’s what the man himself would want. Players will think more about the post-Klopp era. It’d be typical of them to do so.

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If you think it’s justified, try explaining this worship to a civilian. They’ll look at you like you’re mad. In football, small acts of empathy are made out to be acts of saintly devotion. You can like someone without making them out to be a demi god. Football is obsessed with deifying people as legends. There’s no doubt Klopp’s influence will be regarded positively in history books – they’ve played great football at times – but it’s only nine years in his life and likely not as important to him as many would wish was the case.

Making him into someone who is to be worshipped is actually a bit insulting because it ignores the personal characteristic flaws innate to human existence. You don’t really love him, you’ve just created a kind of avatar to worship. This kind of hero worship is dangerous because it suspends critical thinking and replaces it with fan devotion.

People who aren’t members of the Tory party are seldom all good or all bad. All I’m asking for is some nuance in appreciation of Klopp. It’s the same with Pep Guardiola, who isn’t thought of as human, so complete is some people’s devotion. It’s as though he’s regarded as a football management bot. It’s okay, but doesn’t allow for human traits or development or decay.

Jurgen will leave and we’ll forget about him. He’ll become a nostalgia theme. That is the sobering nature of the beast. And how it should be. All the words written, all the podcasts broadcast about this man that seem so important now, won’t be remembered or appreciated in a year and we’ll wonder what all the fuss was about. ‘The force of the man is greater than his domestic titles’ is a conversation that can’t be held in this worship bubble. One league title, one Champions League is good, not great. That’s not an insult. Just a correction to the huge acclaim. Just reality.

Perhaps it is a consequence of being older. You are acutely aware that things come and go. Today’s big thing looks smaller tomorrow. You feel less inclined to go over the top. That feels like it lacks perspective. The trouble is it’s easy to gainsay everything they’ve done as you kick against the hyperbole. That’d be wrong too. You have to get it all into proper context and perspective.

One of football’s great purposes is to let us funnel our emotions into things that don’t matter. As such it’s a kind of societal pressure valve.  But these kind of distortions don’t really benefit clarity of understanding because you have to ignore the black marks in favour of the hagiography, which is at least dishonest.

Again, I’m in no way being anti-Klopp, merely asking for less hysterical treatment, which ultimately does him no favours. The last thing we need is a six-month encore where everything is understood through the prism of his leaving. A sickly long goodbye. The man himself wouldn’t want that, so let’s not provide it.