Liverpool have become the butt of a joke these days. Not long ago, after winning the League Cup in February, there was talk of a big possibility of winning four trophies in the season and giving a fitting tribute to Jurgen Klopp who had announced the month before that he will leave the club at the end of 2023-24.
Their players, particularly captain Virgil van Dijk, voiced several times in the wake of the shock announcement that the team was determined to give a massive send-off to the most successful Liverpool manager in the Premier League era.
Then there was talk of former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso replacing Klopp. Once he said in late March he wasn’t leaving Bayer Leverkusen, Sporting Lisbon’s Ruben Amorim was reported to have agreed a deal. He hadn’t, turned out later. Amid all this, Liverpool imploded on the field of play. And in a matter of weeks, they exited the FA Cup and the Europa League.
Technically they are not out of contention for the Premier League title but deep inside fans know they can’t win it now either having ridden a wave of several bad results recently.
With the last few matches left, it appears all over for Liverpool who are presently third, five points behind leaders Arsenal (80 in 35 games) and four behind Manchester City who have a game in hand.
If you thought this was the end of their misery, during their 2-2 draw against West Ham this past weekend, star striker Mohamed Salah and Klopp were seen having an argument after the latter decided to bring on the former 11 minutes from time.
After the match, Salah stoked up the whole thing by saying if he opened his mouth in regard to what had happened between him and Klopp at that time, there will be fire.
All this goes on prove that bad times breed infighting. Liverpool’s utopian bubble has burst. When they were doing well on the field of play Klopp was kind of a demigod there but now that they have blown it, players have started showing their resentment. In April alone… they have claimed just eight points out of a possible 18 in the Premier League besides defeat in the Europa League quarterfinal to Italian side Atalanta, an average club at best.
As far as Klopp’s replacement is concerned, the British media claims Feyenoord manager Arne Slot is set to join the Reds after the English club agreed to pay the compensation money — a little more than $11m — to their Dutch counterparts.
No disrespect to Slot but fans were hoping for someone with renown to take charge. During Klopp’s time, Liverpool truly became a big club after ending decades of drought in the Premier League. Besides they also won the Champions League for the second time in their history. In addition, there have been runner-up finishes for them in the Premier League and the Champions League.
So hoping for a much bigger name wasn’t exactly asking a lot. Not that Slot can’t succeed at Anfield. He led Feyenoord to league success last season but then the Dutch league isn’t exactly one of the top leagues in Europe.
Klopp had joined the Reds in 2015 after winning two league titles with Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga. Seems like the success that Liverpool have tasted since has not amounted to much.
They are still struggling to attract top names which can’t be a matter of pride for club fans. While we don’t know how things are going to pan out under Slot from next season, at present the club seems to have gone back to the time when it was just a top-half entity with trophies few and far between. Klopp would not have planned such an exit for himself for sure! It’s been an unbelievable downward spiral for the Reds.
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