Liverpool fans are coming down from an emotional weekend, in which they said goodbye to legendary manager Jurgen Klopp.
Sunday had been a day circled large in the calendar ever since Klopp announced his intention to leave back in January.
In some ways, it felt it would never arrive. Certainly, no Liverpool fan wanted it to. But, the passing of time is unavoidable, and one of the best figures in the club’s history took his last stand.
The players did their bit for the manager, beating Wolves 2-0. And after the final whistle, Anfield rose to say goodbye to one of its own.
Although there were tears aplenty from in the stands and in the Liverpool squad, Klopp himself remained calm and upbeat as he delivered his final address.
Ian Wright makes Jurgen Klopp point
Liverpool have moved quickly to ensure the hot seat at Anfield has not remained vacant for long. Arne Slot has already been confirmed as the new man coming in.
But while Slot begins planning his team for next season, the focus is still on dissecting Klopp’s last acts as Liverpool manager.
Speaking on his podcast Wrighty’s House, pundit Ian Wright has given his take on Jurgen’s Anfield goodbye. And, perhaps like many, Wright was surprised that Klopp managed to remain dry-eyed.
“I loved all that at Liverpool,” says the Arsenal leged. “He even said I expected to feel differently. I think he thought he might be a lot sadder than he was but the energy and the love was there for everyone to see.
“When I think of Klopp, I don’t think of Klopp who won the Champions League or Premier League or FA Cup. I just think of him as the guy who came in and transcended the fact that its about trophies,” Wright added. “This is why he is going to be in the Shankly and Fagan and Kenny Dalglish, all those great manager’s names.
“He came in and connected, he loves the fans. Maybe that’s why he was singing Arne Slot. Unbelievable. It just felt really good, I’m pleased he was happy with the way it went. It didn’t seem like he was over emotional, it just felt really, really nice.”
Did Jurgen Klopp strike the right tone?
Plenty of Liverpool fans will have been completely onboard with the tone of Klopp’s speech on Sunday. In many respects, it was a celebration, not an occasion of mourning.
Jurgen has always been a person to accentuate the positives of a situation. As a result, the German was keen to ram home just how much faith he had that as a collective, this was just the beginning for Liverpool.
READ MORE: Gary Lineker predicts what Jurgen Klopp is going to do next
Despite that perhaps being true, it was very much the end of something, too. In our opinion, we would have liked to have seen a little more emotion from Klopp.
Nevertheless, he does not need to show that to illustrate what the club, the city and fans mean to him. After a very long goodbye, maybe Jurgen felt he’d already done that enough. Sunday was instead about looking forward instead of back.
Like Wright, we were a little surprised by that. But, knowing Klopp, maybe we shouldn’t have been.