‘Rooney’s a scorpion, not a crab’

We aren’t even a third of the way through the season but Liverpool v Manchester United is a mega event: Red Monday.

I blame the managers. Of course; that’s the first thing they taught me at Football Chairman school: blame the managers!

Red Monday is as much about Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho as it is about two clubs whose shared history sometimes looks too big a fit for either of them. Monday is when they get their first meaningful progress reports of the season.

Liverpool can go top of the Premier League if they win by three clear goals, which means that the Klopp household will be a lot happier with the report which drops through their letterbox. Jurgen is a bright boy who gets on well with those around him and learns quickly.

If United lose they are bogged down in eighth place with Palace, Watford and Bournemouth snapping at their heels just two points behind. If that happens Mourinho’s report will have to include phrases like “Jose must learn to pay attention to his past mistakes” and “Jose should focus more on his homework and not so much on the referee.” 

Both men are good fits for their current jobs.

Klopp wound up in Liverpool because it is a club and a city which would give him the chance to do what he is good at.  At Dortmund he took over a dowdy organisation who had been through three managers in a year. He improved players through good coaching and hard work. He had a sincere connection to the people who paid to watch his side. He enjoyed not being Bayern Munich manager more than he would have enjoyed being Bayern manager. 

It is hard to imagine him being interested in managing a club like Bayern or Manchester United where every transfer has to be a statement, every quote has to be a headline and every defeat is a catastrophe.

Liverpool, in the long famine since they last won a title, have tried waking up all the ghosts in the old bootroom. No luck. They have looked to France with Gerard Houllier, to Spain with Rafael Benitez and to the X Factor with a young and upcoming Brendan Rogers but despite a few nice sunrises it always went dark again.

Klopp seems to be precisely the right man at the right time. He had hardly been a wet day at Anfield before the club extended his contract to keep him there till 2022. They made the right move. Houllier had brought the culture of French football with him to Anfield. Benitez brought a chunk of Spain with him. Liverpool, though, is always Liverpool.

Klopp’s way has been to absorb himself into …

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