Klopp and Shanks .
Perhaps my Avatar was prophetic ... ?
Ray Clemence thought there could never be another Bill Shankly, that they broke the mould when the gravel-voiced Scot who was the architect of the modern Liverpool walked away from Anfield.
So the highest praise you could find for Jürgen Klopp as his club stand on the brink of their first Champions League final in 11 years is that Clemence, the goalkeeper in Liverpool's greatest European era, is thinking again.
Clemence has found himself mesmerised not only by the whirlwind brand of attacking football Klopp has produced, but the way the Kop has become a wall of sound again.
In 665 appearances over 12 seasons for Liverpool, Clemence won three European Cups.
'If you ask me to compare them, I thought Shankly was a one-off, but then I'd have to say that Klopp is the nearest thing,' he says. 'The relationship Klopp has with the players and fans, it is exactly what Shankly had.
'He pulled the club together so it was one strong unit that would do anything to help each other out and Klopp has revived that.
'You only have to look at the last Champions League games, Manchester City and then Roma, the atmosphere in there was as it used to be when I played. Special nights. You can't understate just how hard that is for a manager to achieve, and the bigger the club the more difficult it is.
'At any level it's tough these days for managers because everybody wants success yesterday, and at a club the size of Liverpool there are so many factions you have to try to bring together. He appears to have done that and it's a priceless achievement.'
'I thought Shankly was a one-off, but I'd have to say that Klopp is the nearest thing,' he says
Clemence, now 69, has never lost his love for Liverpool. Signed by Shankly from Scunthorpe in 1967, he went on to play 665 games over 12 seasons, winning five First Division titles and three European Cups.
And the thought of this side heading to Rome for Wednesday night's semi-final second leg, with a 5-2 lead and the prospect of starting a new era of success, brings the memories flooding back.
'We had three or four months where we were going for the league title, the FA Cup and the European Cup, and so every three days we had to win a game,' he says. 'There was no respite. In the final 10 days we won the league on the Saturday, lost to Manchester United in the FA Cup final the following Saturday, and then four days later we had the European Cup final in Rome.
'Of course we were down. Going to the stadium we had been told there were going to be 11,000 fans there, which was incredible considering all the expense, but we went out to look at the pitch and there were 26,000 there.
'Half the stadium was red and white, they had come from all over the world to be at Liverpool's first European final. When we went back in, nobody really spoke, but we were all looking at each other and thinking the same thing, 'We cannot let these people down, we have to perform'.
'That team had so many big personalities — Tommy Smith, Emlyn Hughes, Jimmy Case. I've always said you need one to wear the armband, and three other captains, but that side had seven or eight leaders.
'The way up to the pitch was a dark tunnel, with some steps just before going out. We were looking at each other, thinking we had a disappointment four days ago and we're not going to have another.
'There was no shouting or anything, there was just a sense that we knew what each other was thinking and we just had to be concentrated. We needed to be at our best and we were — Kevin Keegan in particular was being marked by Berti Vogts, who was the best man-for-man marker in the world at that time and Kevin ran him to death. We finished up winning and winning in style.
'There was an incredible party after — which I don't remember a lot of — and then we went back to Liverpool and 3million people. It took us three hours to get from the airport to the centre of Liverpool. Great days and you'd love these boys now to sample some of the same.'
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5675757/Liverpool-legend-Ray-Clemence-hails-Jürgen-Klopp-best-thing-Bill-Shankly.html#ixzz5EOXxA88O
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