Klopp and Guardiola: A rivalry so intense and chaotically beautiful

When Pep Guardiola arrived at the door of the Premier League in 2016 the future had already been mapped out for him. The next great rivalry of English football was to be Guardiola of Manchester City versus Jose Mourinho of Manchester United.

Mourinho lasted two-and-a-bit seasons at Old Trafford, finished off in his final game by, as it happens, Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool. Five-and-a-bit years on from that Klopp stood in a small room at Liverpool’s training ground yesterday afternoon ahead of what will soon be his own farewell to English football, a goodbye delivered entirely on his own terms.

Guardiola v Mourinho – so toxic and real back when the two men faced off in Spain – was never a thing in England. Guardiola v Klopp, on the other hand, transpired to be era-defining, a sporting rivalry so intense and chaotically beautiful that is has arguably taken standards of play in this country to heights never consistently reached before.

And now it’s almost over. Almost eight seasons. 21 games. 70 goals. Tomorrow at Anfield Klopp and Guardiola will face off in the Premier League for the final time.

Only a point separates them at the top, in Liverpool’s favour, and that feels entirely appropriate given that so often it has been hard to put even a playing card between these clubs at the season’s end.

Yesterday on Merseyside and indeed in Manchester, there was much back and forth about the relationship between the two great coaches of the modern age.

Thankfully, the Klopp-Guardiola years have not been characterised by the bitterness that was a feature of, for example, Sir Alex Ferguson versus Arsene Wenger or Mourinho versus absolutely everyone in the seasons that passed before.

‘He is the best coach in the world,’ Klopp said simply