Klopp’s men left to wait and wonder after virus strikes
London, Sunday
Liverpool could have been crowned Premier League champions tonight for the first time in a generation.
Instead the stadium will be silent and the streets empty.
Jurgen Klopp’s team needed Manchester City to lose to Burnley on Saturday to give them a chance to seal the deal at their local rivals Everton two days later.
Regardless of whether it would have happened at Goodison Park or over the coming weeks, their first top-flight title for 30 years was a mere formality.
But now fans are wondering when, or even if, they will be crowned champions after the coronavirus laid waste to the global sporting calendar.
The message coming from Liverpool is that there are more important issues than football to talk about, even with the club tantalisingly close to glory.
“I’ve said before that football always seems the most important of the least important things,” Klopp said in a statement on Friday.
“Today, football and football matches really aren’t important at all. If it’s a choice between football and the good of the wider society, it’s no contest. Really, it isn’t,” he added.
Klopp’s stance won him the support of World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who thanked him for his “powerful message”.
Liverpool supporters, desperate to reclaim their position at the pinnacle of the English game, agree with their German manager, saying the pandemic overshadows football. Supporters’ union Spirit of Shankly is focusing on the damaging fallout from the COVID-19 virus.
“In talks with @lfc we asked for assurances that non-playing staff will not lose their pay as a consequence of shifts being cancelled,” it said in a statement.
Deserving winners
Liverpool have stumbled in recent weeks, knocked out of the Champions League by Atletico Madrid and dumped out of the FA Cup by Chelsea.
But they have been peerless in the Premier League, leaving their rivals in their wake to race 25 points clear of defending champions Manchester City.
With Alisson Becker in goal, Virgil van Dijk marshalling the defence and their devastating front three of Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, Klopp’s men have been irresistible.
