When Pep Guardiola arrived at the door of the Premier League in 2016 the future had already been mapped out for him. The next great rivalry of English football was to be Guardiola of Manchester City versus Jose Mourinho of Manchester United.
Mourinho lasted two-and-a-bit seasons at Old Trafford, finished off in his final game by, as it happens, Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool. Five-and-a-bit years on from that Klopp stood in a small room at Liverpool’s training ground yesterday afternoon ahead of what will soon be his own farewell to English football, a goodbye delivered entirely on his own terms.
Guardiola v Mourinho – so toxic and real back when the two men faced off in Spain – was never a thing in England. Guardiola v Klopp, on the other hand, transpired to be era-defining, a sporting rivalry so intense and chaotically beautiful that is has arguably taken standards of play in this country to heights never consistently reached before.
And now it’s almost over. Almost eight seasons. 21 games. 70 goals. Tomorrow at Anfield Klopp and Guardiola will face off in the Premier League for the final time.
Only a point separates them at the top, in Liverpool’s favour, and that feels entirely appropriate given that so often it has been hard to put even a playing card between these clubs at the season’s end.
Yesterday on Merseyside and indeed in Manchester, there was much back and forth about the relationship between the two great coaches of the modern age.
Thankfully, the Klopp-Guardiola years have not been characterised by the bitterness that was a feature of, for example, Sir Alex Ferguson versus Arsene Wenger or Mourinho versus absolutely everyone in the seasons that passed before.
‘He is the best coach in the world,’ Klopp said simply of Guardiola yesterday.
What resonates more deeply, though, are the heights that City and Liverpool have driven each other to over the last eight seasons. Once upon a time in England you could win a Premier League with 79 points.
Mid-80s if you were exceptional. Very occasionally a team would break the 90-point mark. Guardiola and Klopp changed that. Liverpool registered 92 points in 2022 and 97 points in 2019. City beat them both times.
‘Yeh I know it’s been special,’ said Klopp yesterday.
‘Having 97 points and not winning the league is incredible, and yes we pushed each other.
‘I’m sure City doesn’t reach 100 points without us and we don’t get 97 or whatever without City. You need that.
‘In these difficult moments when players are not there and stuff like that, you need that little bit extra. The thought that if we don’t do it the other will come definitely pushed the other.
‘It was good fun. It would have been better fun had we won it more often, no doubt about that. But I don’t think of it like that. It was just exceptional what the boys did and it will not happen regularly.’
In common with most managers and athletes, Klopp doesn’t often dwell on bigger pictures. How can he? Preparation for a fixture that could give his team a leap in this year’s race had on Thursday night involved a Europa League game in Prague and a flight home in the early hours. No time to reflect.
One day, though, the German will know well the theatre of which he was a central part. The competitiveness of the City/Liverpool rivalry has been compelling so too has the actual football.
Guardiola and his powerful City teams have a trophy haul that includes five Premier League titles. Klopp and Liverpool have just the one. But few teams, few managers, have vexed, troubled and frustrated the great Catalan like Klopp has.
Klopp has actually won eight of those 21 games while Guardiola is one behind. Klopp claimed not to know this until told of it yesterday.
More vivid, though, are the memories such as the blizzard of goals – three in 19 minutes – Liverpool hit City with at Anfield when the teams met in the Champions League in 2018.
Three months earlier, they had scored three in nine minutes on the way to beating their rivals 4-3 in the league. Some recovery from a season that had started with a 5-0 shellacking at the Etihad.
Those present have not forgotten the look of disorientation on Guardiola’s face on those occasions. City were not alone. Visiting Anfield in the Klopp years has been akin to being thrown in to a washing machine at times.
The fascination of it all was to realise that even City – Guardiola’s magnificent, dominant, fearless City – were not immune to it.
This weekend’s fixture has been coloured by words spoken by Liverpool’s Trent Alexander Arnold in a magazine interview and, by way of a response, City’s forward Erling Haaland. Klopp addressed it yesterday with a huge smile. He knows what all this means. Nothing.
These are two great football clubs who don’t hugely like each other. There are layers to that story, some real and some fabricated. Some childish and some not.
The two managers have, mercifully, kept out of it all on the whole. Neither are angels. Guardiola can appear condescending and patronising. Klopp’s behaviour towards referees has sometimes crossed the line. If indeed there is one anymore.
Between the two men, though, there has rarely been anything other than competitive respect. They are not close though Guardiola did call Klopp in the moments after Liverpool won the Champions League in Madrid in 2019 and indeed again once his rival broke news of his retirement plans in January.
‘I don’t know 100 per cent if we like each other,’ Klopp said.
‘I just know the respect is there. We have had talks. Phone calls. Stuff like that in different moments. He went through a difficult period. I went through a difficult period. On a private basis. So we had contact there.
‘He called [after the announcement] and we had a talk. I can’t tell you what we said to
each other. But I know things you would love to know!
