It’s not me, it’s very definitely you.
Break ups are hard but sometimes both parties know that it’s in everyone’s best interest that you go your separate ways. Brendan Rodgers got the nudge in October after he just wasn’t satisfying Liverpool’s American owners or the Anfield crowd anymore.
But most of all his heart just wasn’t in it.
Like a man forced to watch endless re-runs of Grey’s Anatomy, the life had gone dead behind the eyes of the affable, but too easily mocked Antrim native in his final few weeks at Liverpool.
His departure meant that fans – who’d been giving the winky face and all of the flirty emojis to Jurgen Klopp for months – could finally feel less guilty for hoping the German would return their advances.
He may only be in England since the middle of October, but it’s a measure of his impact, his refreshing honesty and the power of his personality that he would even enter my head as my favourite sportsperson of 2015.
With Jurgen Klopp, life for every other team is black and white, but Anfield is screaming technicolor.
Sport in 2015 is all about bullshit at every level and in every code.
But Klopp is the very opposite of media managers shutting down questions or blaming a bad result on a referee.
Instead he takes responsibility, like a manager should. He doesn’t pay lip service to fans or to to the media. He is everything that a sportsfan – of Liverpool or not – would want.
When he was in Germany his legend almost seemed too good to be true. Here was this almost mythical figure who players adored, that fans praised constantly, and his teams played entertaining football.
His 2015 began with Borussia Dortmund struggling to avoid relegation in the Bundesliga, but he turned it around, through hard work and belief, and they eventually finished seventh.
He looked jaded though and he announced that he was quitting the club to take a sabbatical from football.
But before he left Dortmund, fans showed exactly what he meant to them with a show of adoration that someone like an Alex Ferguson could only inspire.
https://twitter.com/RobbieRadford/status/602104337393971200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Every single time he was linked with a return to football management a little beat would skip in my heart.
I desperately wanted to see him at Anfield and even though he did not win anything in 2015, already his year is a success for reviving hope in hearts, minds and keyboards in my case.
He left a Dortmund team that is now just a few points away from Bayern Munich and he has already made a significant impact at Liverpool.
Imagine what he may achieve in 2016.
5 #LFC +ives
We never gave up
Bench made a difference
Captain drove the team
Players playing for the manager#InKloppwetrust— H-W Chan (@HWChan555) December 13, 2015
And now comes the selling bit where I plead with you to vote for me and my choice so I can sneer at my peers in the office. I know already Klopp won’t win this poll because Jon Walters, or Paul O’Connell or Conor McGregor will walk away with it.
But I want you to consider all the people who have made them the best sportsmen that they are.
Every single one of them came across a man like Jurgen Klopp in their career at some stage. Someone who inspired them to stay behind after training to practice their technique at the breakdown, or hit the ball so sweetly at the back post to just sneak in past a goalkeeper, or to keep working on their left jab so it would knock a man out cold.
There is only one Jurgen Klopp in the world, and for sportsfans, that is a sad indictment of high level culture in 2015.
But for now, enjoy the mad, the bad and the downright thrill of young love.
Let’s hope it lasts.
