Arsène Wenger grew up a devout Catholic, attended mass every day, and by the time it came to confession he had often already forgotten the various misdeeds he had committed during the week. So she started making up sins just to have something to confess. “You can never be completely happy because you can never be successful enough,” he told the BBC. Desert Island Discs In 2020. “You always feel a little bit guilty because the Catholic religion is like that.”
For man and coach Wenger, the never-ending quest for unattainable perfection would define his life. We would like to remind you that the word “passion” derives from Latin. veranda manIt means “to suffer”. His passion for football was a Christian passion; it was the passion of wounded parties and dried blood, the passion of giving up something now (mortal life/time and effort/the opportunity to sign Eden Hazard) to ensure greater victories to come (eternal sanctity). In the arms of God/fourth place in the Premier League/long-term financial stability and timely payment of stadium debt). Every defeat was a scar on his heart. Each victory only saved one more week of guilt.
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Jurgen Klopp’s relationship with Christianity has always been a little different. A little looser. He once said: “Being a Protestant leaves a few doors open. Frankly, it’s not that dogmatic.”
When he was a child and he misbehaved, his mother would ask him what God would think, and Jürgen would say that God was probably too busy. The only real imposition of his faith on his football was that it restricted his ability to play on Sunday mornings; This was the beginning of a lifelong dislike of early start times.
Does this in itself explain anything? No, of course not. But when Klopp leaves Liverpool there is shock, anguish and devastation. Fans turn on radio phone-in shows and burst into tears. Wenger leaves Arsenal before dashing out the door in a daze of boredom and indifference, waving goodbye to fans who silently accept that it’s probably for the best.
“It was probably the worst day of my life,” one Liverpool fan cries on TikTok. The famous banner played at the Hawthorns in 2014 read: “Arsène, thank you for the memories but it’s time to say goodbye.” As the club founded by Arsène prepares to host the team founded by Jürgen, it is worth thinking for a moment about why.
Because it seems Wenger’s and Klopp’s legacies are heavily pitted against each other. By consensus, each of them ranks in the top five of all-time Premier League managers, alongside Sir Alex Ferguson, José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. We can weigh and balance the virtues of a Champions League victory against an unbeaten season, beauty versus happiness, the influence of managers in possession and throw-ins versus the influence of football and pasta; It is more noble to finish by finishing second. Winning by 97 points (Liverpool 2018-19) or 78 points (Arsenal 1997-98). This part of the exercise largely belongs to the realm of pub debate; The existence of this debate underscores the collective greatness of their achievements.
And there’s more to it than that: Klopp has, in a sense, taken over Wenger’s role as the unheeded conscience of English football; The grown-up sage was telling him the truths he didn’t want to hear. Just as Wenger railed against the inequalities resulting from unbridled spending and was derided as a “connoisseur of failure” for his trouble, Klopp went out of his way to decry the scourge of state investment and expansion programs and was accused of sour grapes for doing so. . So they continued to work in the shadow of the Manchester giant, driven first and foremost by their own principles and values, with a strong belief that doing something the right way is just as important as doing it in the first place.
So why does Klopp leave with wreaths thrown at his feet while Wenger is pushed towards the exit and screams? This is largely a matter of timing. If Wenger had left in 2005, the ninth year of his reign at Arsenal, he would probably be remembered much more fondly than he is now. Since leaving the bench, he has wondered aloud whether he had stayed on too long, whether something fundamental had broken in the years after the unbeaten season. He feels guilty – not for the first time – for the life and relationships he sacrificed during his addiction process to become the best manager he could be.
So you don’t think Klopp was being very flattering when he referred to Wenger as a “football freak” early in his Liverpool career. Wenger teaches us that you have to sacrifice your life for football.
Klopp is actually teaching us, no: you don’t. The intensity it took to win and keep winning was the intensity that eventually consumed him.
Unlike Wenger, who lived a reclusive life and never went out 48 hours before a match, Klopp was the only Premier League manager to offer this writer one of his cigarettes during an interview. Victory in the afterlife; victory in this. Perhaps this explains why Klopp was better loved at the end of his time than Wenger was at the end. But it also explains why no elite manager could come close to emulating Wenger’s 22 years at one club.
For all their similarities as coaches and leaders, it is the difference in perspective that ultimately defines these two great men. For Wenger, belief was a responsibility; It was a long struggle filled with guilt and pain. For Klopp, it was a freely chosen ritual, a way to understand and connect with people. Two concepts of self; two concepts of the world and how to best serve it; Ultimately, they are two concepts of what it means to love.