There are few figures connected with Liverpool that are as loved as Jurgen Klopp, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is his biggest fan.
Liverpool fans entered a state of near-grief in January when Klopp announced that he will leave the club at the end of the season.
The German coach has brought huge success to Anfield over the past nine years and has won plenty of plaudits along the way.
Klopp is a manager that players will run through walls for, but some haven’t always seen eye-to-eye with the charismatic manager.
Jordan Henderson
Jordan Henderson left Liverpool last summer after 12 years at the club, and while he didn’t fall out with Klopp, he admitted that he would have stayed if the manager had asked him to.
“Hendo [Henderson] is a fantastic player, I’ll love him forever, super guy, but he’s not great when he’s not playing,” Klopp said after the midfielder left to join Saudi Pro League side Al-Ettifaq.
“James Milner was like this, Lucas Leiva too. Great guys but in the moment when they see the line up and they’re not in it they turn, Jekyll and Hyde, it’s unbelievable.”
On leaving Liverpool, Henderson said: “Then there was an approach from Ettifaq to the club to see if it would be possible for me to go there.
“The reaction from the club again wasn’t to say no. At that moment, I felt as though my value or the want for me to stay, with the manager and within the club, maybe it had shifted.
“If one of those people said to me, ‘Now we want you to stay’, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
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| Jordan Henderson is now playing for AFC Ajax. Image: Getty |
Mamadou Sakho
Defender Mamadou Sakho played a key role in getting Liverpool to the Europa League final in 2015-16, although he missed the showpiece fixture after UEFA investigated him for suspected doping.
Sakho never played for Liverpool again despite being cleared, with Klopp sending him home from the team’s pre-season tour of the United States for being late to team meals and training.
Klopp froze Sakho out of his squad ahead of his first full season in charge, and the defender was not happy about it.
“Now it’s three weeks I am fit to play games. They don’t want me to play with segonde [U23s] team lol,” Sakho wrote on Snapchat.
“Still working hard like Scouse Soldier! Still not talking cos I want to speak on the pitch…. I will speak soon for the people who support me and don’t understand the situation.
“Still happy to live in my Liverpool Country with my family, hope to have chance to play soon to give my best like I try to always do! I accept my situation but I can’t accept the lie…. the fans deserve to know the true!”
Mario Balotelli
Balotelli was already at Liverpool when Klopp arrived, but the incoming coach had no place for him in his plans.
The striker did not take part in Liverpool’s pre-season tour, and was loaned to AC Milan for the season.
Balotelli’s agent at the time, Mino Raiola, branded Klopp “a piece of s***” over the situation.
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| Getty) The Italy international later said: “Klopp does not know me and I do not know him. I was back in Liverpool a month and a half and I spoke to him once. “He explained to me that I could stay there but I was not his first choice and he told me it was better if I went somewhere else. “If I got games, did well, I could come back but I said goodbye and thank you, and that we wouldn’t be seeing each other again.” Balotelli was sold to French side Nice in 2016. Lazar MarkovicAnother player Klopp inherited from Brendan Rodgers was Lazar Markovic, who was on loan at Fenerbahce when Klopp joined the club in October 2015. Klopp signed off on further loan spells to Hull City and Sporting CP, before allowing the player to leave for good in 2017. While attempting to rebuild his career in Belgium with Anderlecht, Markovic told Belgian newspaper DH: “It’s to show that I’m still the same player, to show the people at Liverpool that they can’t treat me that way. |
“Yes, it’s okay to take it personally when you are not let go because they’re asking for an unrealistic transfer amount.”
Featured Image Credit: Getty