“I am The Normal One.”
After everything we’ve seen and heard of Jurgen Klopp before his appointment as Liverpool’s new manager, the last thing anyone expected is that he would follow Avram Grant’s lead during his unveiling.
Picturing Grant’s dour demeanour, slumped on the Stamford Bridge sideline or soaked to the bone at the Luzhniki Stadium, his self-inflicted moniker fits perfectly. It’s perhaps even a bit too glossy.
But Klopp, with his goofy grin, floppy blonde mop and thick-rimmed spectacles – spectacles! – is supposed to be anything but normal.
At least that’s what we’re told.
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The Normal One doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as ‘The Special One’ which, it’s still worth pointing out, isn’t actually what Jose Mourinho claimed to be when he joined Chelsea back in 2004.
“I’m not one out of the bottle, I think I’m a special one,” the fresh-faced Portuguese told journalists at his first press conference.
That didn’t fit the agenda, however, so the indefinite article made way for the definite, Mourinho had his new nickname and the rest is history.
Incidentally, it is interesting to wonder what influence that small but significant adjustment has had on the man himself.
When Mourinho first landed the football news cycle was almost unrecognisable compared to today’s explosion of information.
Before his arrival there had been the odd soundbite, that memorable sprint down the touchline at Old Trafford, and of course the remarkable success he achieved with Porto.
We knew he was confident in his own abilities and had every right to be. But he wasn’t so arrogant that he would call himself The Special One.
Klopp, on the other hand, has been a familiar face on our TVs, laptops, tablets and mobile phones for longer than the duration of Mourinho’s first spell in England. The defining process was almost complete before Friday morning, and now he is boxed and ready to go.
In fact, we know him so well that the backlash to the ‘German Ian Holloway’s’ shtick has already begun.
Logic dictates that what we know about Klopp should influence what we can expect, but the reversal of that inference is becoming increasingly pervasive.
The ubiquity of Klopp stories on social media over the past few years has offered little in terms of variety. Unless you’re an avid follower of Borussia Dortmund and the Bundesliga, it’s likely you’ve only seen one side to the man.
His eccentricities may be more shareable than the common cold, but for every offbeat moment there are a thousand unworthy of Vine or headline.
Indeed, the most interesting aspect (or not, rather) of his unveiling was the distinct lack of anything particularly ‘wacky’ to comment on.
He was enthusiastic, charismatic, but beneath it all he said exactly what everyone would expect the new Liverpool manager to say: something something history, something something title, something something patience.
That will probably be lost in the noise. That Klopp was asked what type of manager he is reinforces the desperate rush to define him. And now we have our yardstick: The Normal One.
Even the slightest hint of deviation from that unspectacular claim will result in a scurrying of stories. We have seen it before.
When Klopp blew his top at the fourth official in a Champions League tie against Napoli in 2013, the video was everywhere. But was his reaction any different to Mourinho or Sir Alex Ferguson’s countless eruptions? When Andre Villas-Boas head-butted an official earlier this year it barely registered.
The microscopic scrutiny and exaggeration of Klopp’s mannerisms will no doubt continue, exacerbated by the often repetitive nature of the news cycle. There is an inevitability to it, in the same way that Sunderland and Sam Allardyce have been creeping towards each other like continental plates for the past decade.
But although the cult of Klopp may be persuasive, it shouldn’t cement our perception. He retains an ability to surprise, even if the surprise is that he is actually, well, normal.
We know plenty, but we don’t know everything, and certainly not enough to already be fatigued.
