Inside Jurgen Klopp final pre-match press conference as quiet gesture shows Liverpool manager class

It was shortly before 10am on Friday morning when an expectant hush descended on the press room of the AXA Training Centre.

Like countless other times across the last nine years, where Liverpool's training ground has been split across bases at the iconic Melwood in West Derby and their more modern £50m site in Kirkby, journalists had gathered to hear from Jurgen Klopp.

Theoretically, Klopp was there to preview Sunday's visit from Wolves, perhaps offer an injury update or two and muse on the early Friday announcements that both Joel Matip and Thiago Alcantara would be leaving at the end of their contracts this month.

None of those angles were the real story on the day, though. This, like it has been all week in fact, was all about Klopp, even if the man himself might have grown weary by the attention on his last hours as Liverpool's manager. "The most intense week of my life," he later reflected. It's far from over yet, either.

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Before the cameras began rolling, though, there was a moment of brief levity as a false start held up proceedings. Klopp cut through the aforementioned silence with a booming "good morning" as he entered the room before quickly turning back, realising he had forgotten something that was apparently needed to front up to the media one last time.

"Shortest press conference yet," laughed one as the gathered media awaited the return of the headline act. Klopp was informed by a club employee that whatever he was after was in fact at the back of the room, which allowed him to quickly poke some gentle fun at the Scouse dialect of his colleague. "At the backkkk!" he joked.

"How bad can I make this for one last time?" Sky Sports' Vinny O'Connor said in self-deprecating humour. Klopp replied: "You have a talent for that, so I wouldn't worry." It was the sort of playful, yet razor-sharp barb that the people of the region he has lived in since 2015 pride themselves on. An honorary Scouser indeed.

That's kind of how it's been for Klopp in recent weeks, the tension levels have dropped, the pressure has been turned off and thoughts of a Majorca beach, where he is due to move with his wife Ulla, have infiltrated his thinking without too much resistance from the part of him that remains a Premier League manager.

The press conference itself saw him pay tribute to the outgoing Matip and Thiago, saying: "Thiago, a world-class player. In a different world I would love to see the career without injuries. He can do things with a football that I didn't think was possible. Joel, has there ever been a better free transfer? No-one is more likable, wonderful man. Whoever gets him is a lucky club."

He was also unrestrained when offering his take on Premier League clubs deciding to vote on the continued use of VAR going forward, revealing: "How it's used is definitely not right, how they use it, I would vote against it. These people cannot do it properly. VAR is not the problem, you cannot change the people so I would vote for scrapping VAR."

But ultimately, it was a press conference that was held to get the parting thoughts of the man who dragged Liverpool back towards the summit of the game in both England and Europe across most of the last decade with eight trophies that included a first league title for 30 years, a sixth European Cup and a first-ever Club World Cup.

“It is nearly a decade in my life and super-influential in so many ways," Klopp said. "We spoke before how hard it will be to say goodbye because I love everything about this place. I take memories with me, fantastic memories. I take friendships with me, relationships with me – forever.

"You realise the older you get when time slips through your finger you only realise later on you look back and think 'My God, that was quick'. I don't think it was quick, the nine years. I really think it was the absolute opposite of a waste of time. We used absolutely everything and tried to make the best out of everything and tried to enjoy it as much as somehow possible.

"A decade in your life is a massive one and I will not forget a day in that time because I met the best people I ever met and I did it for the best club I could have imagined. That is how it is. In a wonderful, very, very special city.

"Nothing is perfect nowadays but the maturity of the people in this city is as close as possible because of the way they are, the way they deal with life, the way you welcome you and the way you treat you. And I don't mean me, I mean all people I know who arrive in this city. What they tell me describes people in Liverpool and that is wonderful to know.

"I am completely at peace. It is wonderful to know I spent a big time of my life here. I got the key to the city and I know probably for a lot of people that's rather funny but for me it feels like responsibility. I don't imagine the club will need my help in the future but if the city needs me I am there. I want to be helpful in whatever way and we will see how that looks.”

The scenes after the cameras were turned off had the air of an end-of-term wind-down with bottles of champagne handed out as thoughtful parting gifts on behalf of Klopp to members of the media who, like the ECHO, have covered Liverpool FC home, away and abroad in great detail these past nine years.

Klopp was also handed over a specially-commissioned canvas print of his greatest triumphs on behalf of the ECHO and our colleagues from the national media, with a collection from those who have regularly worked with the man himself also gathered to deliver to a charity of his choice, Fans Supporting Foodbanks. One final mark of his class.

A quick chat with just a handful of members from the Sunday media later and that was that. Klopp shuffled up the stairs towards the sanctuary of his office for one last time. There will never be another like him.

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