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Klopp: It was the wrong time to reject Manchester United; football is all about winning, being awesome and losing, and being ignorant
3:42am, 22 October 2025【Football】
Hupu reported on October 20 that Red Bull’s global football director Klopp accepted an exclusive interview with TheDiaryOfACEO.
(This interview lasts for two and a half hours, please forgive me for having to split it up...)
Why didn't you choose to join Manchester United after your success at Dortmund?
No, no, no, no. They tried it. I... That was the wrong time for me, the wrong time. I still had a contract with Dortmund at the time. I won't leave.
I really wouldn’t leave for any team at that time. They just need a coach, but they want a head coach who wants to come aboard.
Well, so it was you who rejected Manchester United, not Manchester United who rejected you.
Yes.
So why is a team like Manchester United known as the biggest team in the world? Since it is great, why not go?
Manchester United, great Manchester United. This is very typical. We are not chatting privately, so I don’t like the reasons those people tell me.
Really?
Manchester United is so big. We can get all the players we want, we can get this and this and that. And I was sitting there listening to him. So, that's not my plan.
So what is the reason?
I felt like the timing was wrong, and most importantly, it wasn't my plan.
As an objective observer, Manchester United has not achieved any results in the past 15 years. I think, I need to know that you are a person who can lead the team and achieve success, and we are currently terrible. Why do you think Manchester United has been so problematic in the past 15 years?
I know you don't want to hear this.
However, you have an assumption.
Since I joined Liverpool, I have never thought about what Manchester United did, right or wrong, not for one second. I just don't. So, I felt like I was accepting of the situation.
Well, I went to Liverpool, and at that moment Manchester United became our opponent. Not my enemy, but a very important opponent and beating him is probably more interesting than beating, say, Everton.
I know a lot of Everton fans. We lived there for 9 years. So I know there are a lot of great people in Liverpool. Yes. Absolutely. But when you go to the game, you think, "Oh my gosh, this is so different." I'm not making this up. That's it. Well, but I really didn't expect that, but that's always the case in football.
Just like in life, you have a problem and you just want to find a temporary solution because you know that in two days you will have another problem, but it's just temporary, looking for a solution, no mid-term plan, no long-term plan, okay, we have to deal with the current problem, this and that, that's it.
To put it simply, this is not the story of Manchester United, but the story of football. You always think about winning the next game, and then you will spend money to buy good time and good results. If you remember, Manchester United finished second that year, but no one there was really happy, they were thinking, oh, remember at that time, second place wasn't good enough and now you're not even close to that, but that's not a Manchester United story, it's just a football story. In the world of football, football has always been like this.
If you win, you are the best. Lose and you know nothing about the game. A draw and you're bored. So, you are not set in stone. The key is, what do you really want to do and where do you want to go.
Everything in life is developing. We today are different from you ten years ago. I was different ten years ago. So, the time between then and now is important. If this is important to me, I will continue to do this for the next ten years. So what I do matters.
My outlook for the next one, two, and three years is also very important. So I have to plan my mid- to long-term life as much as possible. Especially the fate and future of football clubs.
A player can score one goal, or he can score five goals - if you really have a problem, scoring goals will never solve the problem. I don't know what Manchester United's problem is, but Liverpool's is the same.
For example, the day we sold Coutinho, I didn’t think it was great that we had money that day because I lost the player I wanted to work with for ten years. I didn't think so at the time. I thought I would make a lot of money and buy people.
Yes, we invested wisely. That's right. But it’s not like we find a player that fits the position and then figure it out. That's because we had to look elsewhere, but we found two very solid players who are becoming world-class players in Alisson and Van Dijk. They're buying for the future, and that's the difference.
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