Liverpool and Manchester City. Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola. The title on the line, a last meeting during the last dance. If nothing else, this narrative is manna from heaven for the broadcasters.
But while we’ll no doubt be treated to the mother of all pre-match montages, the hype is somewhat justified. There’s no escaping the fact that this is a truly huge game, both in the context of Liverpool’s season and in the wider arc of Klopp’s long goodbye.
There’s the significant caveat that this is not necessarily the last meeting between Klopp and Guardiola. A clash at Wembley is firmly on the cards, in the FA Cup semi-final or potentially even the final, which would be the German’s very last game in charge of Liverpool. BBC and ITV would get the chance to whip up some killer montages of their own.
But the league title is the really big one. For Klopp, it’s a chance to sign off with a Premier League triumph won in normal circumstances — all talk of a ‘tainted title’ during the pandemic was obviously nonsense, but there’s no escaping the reality that the celebrations were not what they should have been.
It would also significantly alter the arithmetic in terms of assessing the Klopp vs Guardiola era in the Premier League. Of course, there’s still the possibility that neither manager wins the league this season, with Arsenal firmly in the hunt. But putting the Gunners to one side, the outcome of this campaign could be the difference between five titles to two and six titles to one.
A couple of points here or there should not change the whole perception of this period, where the true story will always be one of Klopp pushing a far more heavily resourced Manchester City side all the way, time and time again. Nevertheless, the raw numbers will make for better reading in the history books if Liverpool can come out on top.
Signing off with the quadruple would really make a dent in the advantage Guardiola enjoys on paper. Klopp can hike his tally up to 10 major trophies, just four shy of the haul achieved by his Manchester City counterpart.
Regardless of how the chips fall, however, the battle won’t truly be over until at least 2025. According to the Daily Mail, that’s potentially when we can expect to hear a verdict on the 115 charges faced by Manchester City.
Realistically, how could we possibly be expected to assess Klopp’s legacy in full without knowing the outcome of that hearing? We don’t know whether he was simply competing against a historically good team or taking on a group of serial cheaters. Manchester City strongly denies all charges but the verdict has not yet been given.
One thing that’s certain is that Klopp’s place in the pantheon of greats is secure. Assuming Manchester City is cleared of all charges, he has still done a phenomenal job keeping Liverpool competitive against a far richer opponent, delivering plenty of silverware along the way.
But if the verdict goes the other way, Klopp’s legacy will be elevated still further. It’s generally considered unlikely that Liverpool will be awarded any titles retrospectively — and if that were to happen, the 2013/14 Brendan Rodgers season would appear to be the most likely candidate, given that some of the Manchester City charges relate directly to that campaign. Nevertheless, some or all of the charges being proved would paint a very different picture of the last few years.
After all, Klopp built up this Liverpool side more or less from scratch, having taken over a mid-table group. There is no comparison between his first ever XI and the one fielded by Guardiola, which featured the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva and Sergio Agüero — but was that a legitimate inheritance? That’s for the independent panel to decide.
You probably won’t hear any allusions to that on the glossy pre-match montages. But as Klopp and Guardiola meet for what might be the final time, there are quite clearly 115 elephants in the room — and the full extent of the Liverpool manager’s impressive legacy cannot be ascertained until they are addressed.