It was a lovely spring afternoon in Liverpool. The sun was out, the temperature was high and, around Anfield, so were spirits. There were smiles and laughter among the thousands in the nearby streets, cafes and pubs that they carried into the stadium, where soon there were also chants and songs from the masses, rising to a pitch during an enthralling encounter with Tottenham the hosts ultimately won. All in all a great day and, being among it, the very real sense that this, then, is what the fifth stage of grief looks like.
Because acceptance is very much the mood among most Liverpool supporters when it comes to Jürgen Klopp’s impending departure. All were shocked when, in January, he announced he was going at the end of the season and each, in their own way, has gone through the various phases of losing a loved one in the following four months. It has been tough but it’s safe to say that collective emotions have centred on recognising that Klopp wasn’t kidding when he said he was running out of energy. The big German with the big grin is, quite clearly, not the man he once was.
As such the focus now is on giving him the send-off he deserves. That process has begun and will crescendo at Sunday’s game against Wolves, Klopp’s last at Anfield, the place he has called home and lit up from the home dugout during the past eight and a half years. A venue renowned for the noise it generates will rock to roars of appreciation from the Kop and elsewhere but there are also sure to be tears, most significantly when Klopp delivers his last fist pump and makes his way down the tunnel for the last time, and really that will be apt given the extent to which sadness has been a motif of this era in Liverpool’s history.
For while there has been great success – seven major trophies including a first league championship in 30 years and a sixth European Cup – there has also been a litany of near misses and periods of difficulty that have induced despair. Two final-day league title losses to Manchester City, two Champions League final defeats by Real Madrid, being made to celebrate Premier League glory in eerie, isolated circumstances, all of the following season and the closing stages of this campaign, when the pursuit of a quadruple fell apart in desperate, dispiriting fashion. It’s all relative, of course, and fans of other clubs would be justified in calling out these moments as first-world problems, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t hurt those concerned. Pain, after all, is pain.