Jurgen Klopp is sat outside Liverpool’s training base after leaving his office for the final time last May.
“In this moment, I’m relatively sure that I will not work as a manager anymore,” he says. “I will be fine. And, more importantly, the club as well because you saw the team now. That’s a bunch of really good people and they will be fine or even more.
“And now somebody will come in full of dreams, full of energy, full of excitement, and full of new ideas, rightly so, and will lead the club into that future. It’s great.”
The parting words of the new four-part documentary on Prime Video, ‘Doubters to Believers: Liverpool FC — Klopp’s Era’, resonate with Arne Slot’s side closing in on Premier League title glory.
A new era has got off to a flying start but now there’s the opportunity to relive the last one courtesy of a series directed and produced by Lorton Entertainment, whose previous work includes films about Diego Maradona and Steven Gerrard.
The delayed release was down to the fact that the project had to evolve once it became clear that Klopp wasn’t going to get the fairytale finish to his time at Liverpool.
Rather than the story of the German coach’s final season in charge, it was changed to a retrospective of his entire Anfield reign with a brief overview of his days at Mainz and Borussia Dortmund thrown in. With the scope being widened, Klopp agreed to be interviewed at his home in Majorca last summer.
It provides a glossy trip down memory lane with plenty of match footage from iconic moments and interviews with key personnel. However, those craving a proper peak behind the curtains will be left underwhelmed.
There is very little dressing room access and, away from the training ground, the only players who have a camera crew in tow are Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Jayden Danns.
Yet there are some highlights which shed light on his tenure, and why the club are on course for such success this season.
Lijnders’ heart-to-heart with Nunez
The sight of assistant manager Pep Lijnders sitting in the analysts’ room trying to inspire Darwin Nunez certainly strikes a chord given Slot’s recent complaints about the Uruguayan’s work rate.
“You’ve got to train your hardest and not get frustrated,” Lijnders tells the Liverpool striker in Portuguese after showing him some clips on the big screen.
“You’re the best in Europe in terms of goals and assists combined. You’ve got 23 from 36 games. Some players are just about scoring, but you are becoming more and more of an assist provider. I think that you’ve still got so much more to offer.
“Remember, you are helping the team and that’s why you are in the team. You’re doing great mate, let’s go.”
Lijnders had words of encouragement for Nunez (John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Lijnders features heavily and there’s the unlikely revelation that one of his few fallouts with Klopp surrounded the club’s decision to loan Conor Bradley to Bolton Wanderers in the summer of 2022. The Dutch coach wanted him to stay put.
“It really upset me a lot. It was one of the only confrontations I had with Jurgen,” he reveals.
Lijnders and Klopp do battle on the padel court, with Klopp declaring: “He celebrates points like you want to throw your racket at him. But I love him and we are a really good couple.”
Jones’ fine for Salah
The camera crew hitch a lift with Curtis Jones to training and are given a tour of the complex by the Liverpool midfielder.
When Jones enters the physio room, he catches Mohamed Salah with his phone while he’s having treatment. “We’ve got a fine here. That’s £250!” the academy graduate announces with great delight.
Jones also takes a trip back to his old school, St Vincent de Paul Catholic Primary, close to the centre of Liverpool where he admits to pupils that he once fancied himself as a gangster rapper. There’s a Q&A where he talks about Klopp’s impending departure: “He can go and chill now with his family — and enjoy his cash!”
Klopp’s fondness for Jones shines through: “He was never in doubt that he would make it, and I love that so much. It’s so different to my personality. I have no idea how I arrived here. He believes he’s in exactly the right place. The man he developed into is wonderful.”
Elliott keeps it in the family
Harvey Elliott and his family throw open the doors to their home. His father, Scott, reveals that after signing for Liverpool in 2019, his son grabbed his hand when they were back in the car and announced: “We did it together.”
“We both burst out crying, so I pulled over on the hard shoulder and we just had this embrace for about a minute,” explains Scott.
Harvey, who talks well about the sacrifices required to reach the top, says: “I’m living his dream. So as much as possible I try to live it with him.”
Joining Scott and his wife Janine in an executive box for the Europa League quarter-final tie with Atalanta at Anfield doesn’t go to plan, with Liverpool beaten 3-0 and Harvey taken off at half-time.
“F***ing hell man, he’s hit the bar and the post; that’s heartbreak,” says Scott. “Absolutely gutted. He needs to be hard on himself because if you don’t have that desire within yourself and you are happy with what you’re doing, I don’t think that’s acceptable. You have to keep pushing and pushing. Every day is a school day.”
Klopp picks his highs — and a blue low
Klopp speaks eloquently about some of the most memorable occasions during his time at Anfield.
He remembers the historic fightback to beat Barcelona in the 2019 Champions League final and asking his players “to close their eyes for 10 seconds and imagine the best game you have ever played in your life. Then I opened my eyes again and said that’s exactly the performance we need today.” As he observes, “that story will not happen again”.
There are others. The atmosphere at the 2024 Carabao Cup triumph over Chelsea at Wembley — secured despite an injury crisis, and which turned out to be his final trophy — is likened to “a flying carpet: we just sat on it and flew” and “one of the best moments of my career.”
The Carabao Cup win in 2024 was a high point for Klopp (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
There’s archive footage from the 2019 Champions League final win and clinching the Premier League title the following season, but the achievement of lifting the Club World Cup for the first time in the club’s history is strangely overlooked.
Klopp bristles and turns the air blue when asked what was going through his mind prior to the Goodison derby last April which resulted in a damaging 2-0 defeat as Liverpool’s campaign unravelled.
“Now I have to go back to the f***ing Everton game that I tried hard to get out of my mind and tell you what I thought before this f***ing game? It was probably all wrong as we played as s*** as we did.”
A prophecy that proves true
The best and most emotive part of the series is the finale as Klopp prepares to say his goodbyes. By then the pressure is off and he’s fully come to terms with the fact that Liverpool’s race is run.
“I see it just as an incredible journey,” he says. “I did what I could. I gave my absolute everything. I know I’m not a genius so it was only to do it with hard work and that’s what I put in.”
Looking through an album of photos and goodbye messages, he spots a photo of himself holding up a scarf on the Anfield pitch at his unveiling in October 2015. “This is the proof of why I leave… eight and a half years ago, it looks like 500!”
Klopp’s Anfield unveiling in 2015 (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
The ‘legend’ tag sits uneasily with him, he says. “I don’t look in the mirror in the morning and think, ‘You are a f***ing legend’,” he says, before letting out one of his trademark booming laughs.
There’s footage of his farewell speech to the media after his final pre-match press conference — “I’m at peace with you — if this was a refs’ meeting, I couldn’t say the same!” — and there’s a brief snippet from his speech to the players in the home dressing room after his Anfield farewell as he tries to keep a lid on his emotions.
“I want to say ‘I love you’,” he tells them. “It’s been absolutely outstanding. Thank you for the ride, I’m so proud. The sky’s the limit for you all.”
How that rings true given what’s happened since.
(Top photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
