Klopperation: Celebration

Tamagotchis, vuvuzelas, and boot-cut jeans have all gone out of fashion. It’s usual—things become uncool. This is a usual process of life—your dad’s dancing was actually cool one day, believe it or not. However, some things are meant to be eternally cool and never go out of fashion; such as Michael Caine, Levi’s and Stella Artois. That being said, there is currently a shift in coolness that is seeing something become unacceptable that we never thought would, celebrating a football match. This article is here to act as your savior as we set out a mission to save football: Operation Celebrate begins here. And, it begins with Jürgen Klopp.

Jürgen Klopp has injected the Premier League with a sense of humour with his charismatic personality after recently taking the Liverpool job. Too long has it been that Premier League managers turn up to press conferences and churn out the same old clichés such as “taking every game as it comes,” “the referee had some tough decisions,” and “I do not talk about individual players,” but Klopp has come out with some classics already in his short stint.

Recently Klopp lost his glasses in a manic celebration with Liverpool, after a last minute winner against Norwich City. In the interview afterwards Klopp stated that “I usually have a second pair of glasses but I can’t find them because it’s hard to find glasses without glasses!” This week, he has added to GlassesGate, comparing his new look to a “serial killer.” Imagine all that in a fun German accent with big smiles and hand gestures; this man is great fun! In a PC era where this article has to be checked by four editors, three lawyers and the Queen of England before publication, Klopp is doing as he pleases, dancing around the touchlines, likening himself to a serial killer. Fantastic.

With the Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal refusing to get out of his seat at Old Trafford, (and frankly who would at those prices?) the jumpy German has been throwing himself all over the Anfield technical area in order to spur his team on to a win, like a tactical cheerleader. While whether being an energetic manager on the touchline is more successful than sitting back and allowing your tactics to come to fruition cannot be concluded, Klopp is certainly more entertaining, leaves his heart on the pitch, and is much easier to forgive after a difficult display. Where one manager hasn’t seen his team score in the first half of a Premier League game at home since September, the other saw his team claw back to a 5-4 win after falling behind to a 3-1 score line, and the fans are loving Klopp for it.

Klopp’s Liverpool got an equaliser against a tough West Bromwich Albion recently and Klopp sent his players over to the away end to celebrate with the fans. Player-fan moments are hard to come by nowadays, as usually players don’t even make the extreme effort to turn and clap to the away fans from the half way line, and yet some other fans seem to find Klopp’s players celebrating with fans amusing. Against Norwich, Twitter exploded, mocking Liverpool fans for their zealous excitement after that last-minute winner. All of a sudden it has become uncool to celebrate goals that aren’t against massive teams, or in a cup final.

It’s possible that this is the effect of social media on fans of football. Social media, of course, has its positives—we are now more informed on everything, quicker than ever. You can feel like you are watching a game with the whole country simply by following a match on Twitter! However, the speed of social media has meant that fans need to find more things to mock about their rivals teams, and all of a sudden celebrating a win has become wrong, or worse, uncool. Fans belittling each other over Twitter is fun, it’s like being at work mocking your mate because he supports Stoke; however, I make a plea to all social media users to stop mocking your mate for celebrating when their team wins! That’s what they should be doing. Follow the Klopp way of life. You don’t need to go get a bad haircut and some thick glasses, just have a good time and let your emotions get involved with the game!

So this is a plea to all fans, whether it’s a last minute winner against Stalybridge Celtic in a pre-season friendly, or the Champions League Final-winning penalty against Bayern Munich, celebrate the win! There is no need to be embarrassed. There’s loads else to be miserable about: Piers Morgan’s on Good Morning Britain almost every day now.