Liverpool denied chance to celebrate Premier League title with fans... but Jurgen Klopp can use that as motivation

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David Lynch25 June 2020

It was Oscar Wilde who once wrote that there are only two tragedies in this world: Not getting what one wants, and getting it.

Liverpool fans should currently be familiarising themselves with the latter feeling after finally seeing their team clinch a long-awaited Premier League title.

Instead, they are discovering that even Wilde’s genius didn’t account for a third variety of disappointment: namely, getting what one wants and it being nothing like you imagined.

30 years have passed since the league championship was last held aloft at Anfield, and each of those has been spent dreaming of this very moment.

For Reds of a certain vintage, those dreams were motivated by a desire to once again experience that which had become habitual in the 1970s and 80s.

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Their younger counterparts, meanwhile, simply wished for their first taste of the glory days their parents and grandparents had so often told them about.

But, no matter what their age, no supporter saw the wait ending like this - with fans unable to attend and no real celebrations to mark it.

Of course, it goes without saying that these concerns pale into insignificance when the cause - the true tragedy of a deadly global pandemic - are considered.

The Covid-19 crisis means there will be no repeat of these amazing scenes after Liverpool clinched the Premier League title
Liverpool FC via Getty Images

But, as Jurgen Klopp has so expertly expressed before, football is for so many the most important of non-important things, and so even this infinitely more trivial misfortune is sure to be keenly felt.

That is because, for many, this year should have been the wonderful culmination of a shared experience that began three decades prior.

Think of the Anfield season-ticket holder whose seat was surrounded by strangers 30 years ago but is now situated among close friends that have all walked the same path.

No fans are permitted in stadiums following the Premier League restart as a result of the pandemic
POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Or the families who have longed to see a Liverpool captain proudly holding the Premier League trophy as that long overdue celebratory parade rolls past their house.

And what of those supporters whose friends or loved ones didn’t make it to the end of a remarkable journey that once consumed their thoughts?

Each of these fans has been cruelly denied a moment of deserved catharsis by circumstances far beyond their control. And make no mistake, it is a hurt that the players will feel too.

The enduring image of last season’s Champions League-winning parade is one of elite-level footballers struggling to take in what they are seeing as they stare open-mouthed at packed streets.

Jurgen Klopp will be eager to use the absence of proper title celebrations as motivation to defend the trophy next season
Getty Images

As they were interviewed by LFCTV on that crawl into the city centre, many not only expressed their sheer joy at having facilitated such scenes, but also underlined their desire to ensure it wasn’t just a one-off.

By March, just two wins separated those players from what would likely have been an even more rapturous celebration - but then the coronavirus pandemic reared its head.

If there is one small crumb of comfort for the manager, it is that this heartache can at least double up as a handy motivational tool.

Having responded to a Champions League Final defeat in 2018 by lifting the same trophy 12 months later, Klopp’s players have shown themselves adept at responding to adversity in the right way.

And so he is likely to tell his team that if they really want the parade they deserve, then they will simply have to defend their title next season.

Supporters, too, must bring their best version of themselves to Anfield and stadiums up and down the country once they are eventually allowed to return.

Only then will both parties have the chance to prove that Oscar Wilde was wrong - getting everything you want really is all it’s cracked up to be.

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