Jurgen Klopp clearly got a tad ticked off with the incessant barrage of questions he faced about Steven Gerrard today – and it finally caused his famously cheerful disposition to crack.
The former Liverpool captain announced his retirement from playing this afternoon, just before Klopp faced reporters for his weekly press conference.
Clearly the press pack were not going to pass up the chance to grill the Reds boss on the ex-Anfield star, but after plenty of questions from the floor on him, Klopp could keep his cool no longer after on reporter asked whether he could class Gerrard among the world’s top players.
After a brief silence, the clearly exasperated German let rip. Watch from 3mins 50secs in this clip:
“I’m absolutely the wrong person to answer about this. The top players – how many do you have? Is Pele involved? Franz Beckenbauer involved? Johan Cruyff involved?” he said.
“Where should I start? Where can I end? He’s a top player. And it’s not important what I think. It’s important what the people think and I’ve absolutely no influence on this.
“I saw him once playing live in a stadium, when we lost with Dortmund here 5-0. So was not my best experience in football and that’s all.
“Stop using ME for stories about Steven Gerrard. You don’t need me. If you want to write something about him, write it. He deserved it. But don’t use my name because I have no idea about [him].
“I like him and I will give him all the help I can. if he wants. So that’s 100 per cent sure.
“And all the rest, stop talking here about this because it will not help Steven and it will not help me so why are we talking about it?”
There is silence before Klopp regains his composure, smiles and asks, “Another question about this?” to relieved laughter from the rest of the room.
Dick Clerkin makes his GAA Hour debut to talk about a wonderful career and argue passionately with Colm Parkinson over Sky Sports GAA. Subscribe here on iTunes.
