In purely football terms, three days have shaken Liverpool to its core.
January 26, 2024 now sits alongside July 12, 1974 and February 22, 1991 after Jurgen Klopp confirmed that he will bow out at the end of this season.
It’s fitting that the German made his shock announcement on a Friday; the same day that Bill Shankly and Kenny Dalglish stunned the football world.
For different yet obvious reasons, Shankly and Dalglish hold a particular level of reverence among Reds’ supporters for all that they achieved in the dugout.
Elevating anyone to the Scots’ pantheon is not to be considered lightly, in spite of the success delivered by whose respective tenures flanked their own.
But Klopp’s impending departure after eight-and-a-half years is set to rank firmly among them for transforming Liverpool back into genuine contenders.
His arrival in October 2015 was seen as a genuine coup for a club that had amassed just one Premier League top-five finish in the previous six seasons.
Turning ‘doubters into believers’ was an early mission statement but soon replaced with a determined ‘let’s just go for it’ as Liverpool’s star reascended.
A big-picture outlook was key to Klopp’s success at the Anfield vanguard but that foresight, similarly, led him to the conclusion of Friday’s bombshell news.
Barely 24 hours earlier, he sat in the AXA Training Centre in typically fine form to preview this Sunday’s FA Cup fourth-round encounter with Norwich City.
He spoke proudly of the mood in the dressing room on the previous evening, when Liverpool had booked their place in next month’s Carabao Cup final.
For those privileged enough to attend a weekly audience with Klopp at Kirkby, and Melwood before it, the overriding sense was one of ‘business as usual’.
That message remained consistent as the 56-year-old sat alongside CEO Billy Hogan in attempts to expand on the decision he reached in November.
Any attempts to canvass his fondest memories or highlights since ending his post-Borussia Dortmund sabbatical prematurely were swiftly batted away.
So, too, were questions on the input he will have in appointing a successor and owners Fenway Sports Group’s perceived mismanagement of affairs.
Klopp refused to change the habits of a lifetime in pointing the finger at his American overlords’ without just cause for the sake of fuelling lazy narratives.
He conceded that not every decision taken by FSG received his unanimous approval but a collegiate approach has largely delivered their mutual aims.
By his own admission, it would be ‘easy’ to blame the owners for Liverpool’s shortcomings – and he wouldn’t be their first manager to do so in recent times.
Yet an overriding sense of ‘club first’ continues to run through Klopp’s words and actions; often insulating criticism in tough moments to shield his squad.
On a day which will live long in the memory on Merseyside, he stayed true to form. The emotions remained in check and the approach entirely unchanged.
Business as usual, some might say, and that’s exactly how Klopp played it.
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