Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp criticised the club’s fans for booing Trent Alexander-Arnold after admitting he had never been so disappointed in their actions.
The German, who is beloved on Merseyside after winning the Champions League, Premier League, FA and League Cups in a nine-year spell which ended last summer, said he switched off the television when he heard the jeers.
Unlike his successor Arne Slot, who said it was not his place to tell supporters how to react, Klopp did not hold back in his contempt for their behaviour.
“I don’t want to tell anyone what they should think, I don’t want to say what you have to think but I can tell you what you think is wrong. I am an old man and I don’t waste time with hiding my opinion,” said Klopp, who was guest of honour at the LFC Foundation – of which he is an ambassador – Gala Ball.
“I watched the game when he came on and I heard the booing. I’m old so it my be my hearing so I turned up the volume and said ‘That’s booing’.
“I needed another 10 seconds to realise and then I switched the telly off. I honestly could not have been more disappointed in this moment. This is not us, 100 per cent.
“I don’t tell you you should not be disappointed or angry, I tell you ‘Don’t forget’. This club does not forget. We are famous for not forgetting.
“We don’t forget anything: we don’t forget the good thing and we don’t forget the bad thing. But we ignore the bad things and remember the good things.
“You don’t have to be happy he is going but don’t forget what he did for this club because I can’t forget it.”
Klopp listed a whole number of occasions in which Alexander-Arnold had delivered for the club and stressed without his contribution they would not have had the success they did.
The England international has decided to bring an end his 20-year association with the club when his current deal expires in the summer and is expected to sign for Real Madrid.
Klopp said that he was well within his rights to do that and if anyone had the right to be angry it was owners Fenway Sports Group as it was their multi-million asset who was leaving on a free transfer.
“I was there every day – if he wouldn’t have given everything, I would tell you now but every day he gave absolutely everything for this club and now, after 20 years, he has decided he wants to go somewhere else,” added the German, who said he had contemplated attending Sunday’s final match of the season in an Alexander-Arnold shirt but did not want to detract from the Premier League trophy presentation.
“If someone should be angry it should be the owners – but they are not. ‘Why didn’t he sign a new contract?’. I hear this from fans, this money discussion: ‘He goes without a transfer fee’.
“They (the owners) have to be angry. Not us but it is not about that. He gave absolutely everything and wears the Liverpool badge in the skin.
“This boy, 18 years old, scored a free-kick in Hoffenheim where if he doesn’t score that we don’t qualify for the Champions League.
“Against Barcelona he did the most cheeky thing in the world and set up the goal for 4-0, a result and a game which will not happen again.
“But now he plays next year for another club and we decide how we deal with that.”
