Monday Apr 28:
Still soaking in everything from yesterday, and there’s a lot to soak in. Loads of great content from the club and also the likes of Sky and BBC. I never got especially emotional yesterday, it was more joy than anything else, and it’s the same today mostly. There hasn’t been much to get me choked up, but Curtis bringing his mate Harry onto the pitch did get to me, as did seeing Steve Hunter celebrating with Aldo on the commentary gantry. I’ve said before that Steve is the biggest Red I know, absolutely no-one loves it more than he does, and seeing him getting emotional got me going too.
For years I travelled up and down the country with Steve doing reserve and youth team games and he’s a mate, so I knew how much this meant to him. I just think it’s really cool that he’s got to commentate on us winning a title because he’s put in the hard yards, doing reserve games in the middle of winter at fucking far flung places like Hartlepool, Wakefield, Morecambe etc. He’s still doing it now, so seeing him in Aldo’s arms like that, yeah it got to me.
Something else that choked me up today was Klopp putting out a brief but touching message on his insta. It’s significant that he didn’t do it yesterday because he clearly wanted to stay out of it and let Slot and the players have their moment without making anything about himself. Such a great man. As is Slot. Using his big moment to return the favour to Klopp yesterday says a lot about the man.
I remember watching the first interview he did after taking the job and thinking that there was a quiet confidence there but also a totally unassuming, modesty as well. Believing in himself but not having an ego that could see him come across as arrogant. That was my first impression of him, and now, nine or ten months later, it’s still the same. And it never wavered at any point during the season. It’s not a mask, or a character he’s playing. It’s clearly who he is because he’s been that man in every press conference and every interview he’s done over that entire time.
So giving up his big moment just so he could pay tribute to the man he replaced, yeah that was not remotely surprising. It did make me think though, this is not normal. It’s not how things usually are, at any club, let alone one as big as us. Look at GH and Rafa for example. You know there was definitely bitterness and resentment on both sides there, and that isn’t even a criticism as I think that’s pretty normal in this business. What isn’t normal is what we saw with Klopp in his final game, or with Slot yesterday.
On the transfer front, we’re being linked with Cherki again. There’s something off about this lad. A few of the lads from the pod have watched him a bit and think he’s boss. He has a big reputation as a potential future superstar, yet his asking price is always said to be around £25m. I’ve never seen him play but he reeks of Hatem Ben Arfa to me. There has to be a reason why a) his fee is so low, and b) nobody has swooped for him already. At that price though maybe Hughes and Edwards will think it’s can’t lose.
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