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Jürgen Klopp paid tribute to Gerard Houllier on behalf of the current Liverpool team after the former Reds manager sadly passed away on Monday morning.
The 73-year-old led the club from 1998 to 2004, inspiring the unprecedented treble of 2001 when the League, FA and UEFA Cup clinched an incredible season.
“It’s a very, very, very sad day,” Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com. “I didn’t know Gerard very well, I met him a couple of times, but in those few moments he created a relationship with me that was really special.
“He is a true Liverpool legend and he is a true coach legend. He was very influential in the game. A great coach, but a human being who gave you a very warm feeling when you were around him. For all of us it is a great loss and a really sad day ”.
Houllier oversaw 307 games while in charge of Liverpool, adding one more League Cup to the cabinet in 2003.
The French strategist’s work on and off the field helped restore the Reds to their position as one of Europe’s greatest forces, and laid the foundation for greater success in the years to come.
And following Klopp’s arrival at Anfield in 2015, one of the first congratulatory messages he received was from Houllier, and regular communication between the couple continued in the following years.
“I knew him before I came to Liverpool and I knew him a little then,” Klopp explained. “When I got here, one of the first messages I received, and I didn’t even know he had my number, was from Gerard Houllier.
“I know he had other clubs, he worked for other clubs, he was successful with other clubs, but the way he described it, Liverpool was his club, his real club where he probably felt even more connected than any other club.
“He was a great support from day one; From now to then, messages always came after big games, big losses, big wins and all this kind of thing. In the middle, Gerard actually texted me and said, ‘That was good … that was wrong … I know the situation …’ and all these kinds of things.
“He was a very, very, very kind and gentle person. I already miss him now. Maybe the only good thing you can say right now is that it will never be forgotten here. “
Houllier had a major influence on a major Melwood redevelopment in 2001, as the club’s training facility was transformed into a state-of-the-art complex.
“It was very influential in rebuilding Melwood,” Klopp said. “Melwood at that time was a really modern place and that was because of him, he was a really modern coach, he played a specific form of football.
“He was influential everywhere; a real and proper coach and he had his finger on almost every decision in the club and in a very nice way, and that you don’t get too often.
“When you meet a manager, we always have something to talk about, but not between everyone, that’s normal, it creates a kind of relationship. But with him it happened in the first moment. That’s.”
Recognition of Houllier’s success adorns the walls of the club’s new AXA Training Center in Kirkby.
When asked if that’s the legacy Liverpool fans will remember from him, Klopp replied: “Of course they will. [the trophies] – but I hope you remember him as a man who gave everything for this club and changed the club’s fortunes in difficult times.
“I’m not sure, I wasn’t here, but he brought this club back to its feet. He started out in a kind of maybe weird situation as one of the two managers, but he did the best he could, that was his character, obviously, and then he became very, very influential.
“I think if you want to remember it, you have so many things that you can remember, and that’s probably the best you can say about a person.”
