Hi, Jürgen, hope you're well.
Yeah, I am.
And you?
I'm isolating!
Oh, that's why it looks like you lost weight.
Oh, no, I was exercising before that.
OK.
Despite the double jab it's taken quite a bit out of me, to be fair.
I was quite surprised by it.
- Well, at least you're double jabbed, Vinny.
We've been speaking to a number of managers today, Jürgen,
and obviously asking about the Newcastle takeover -
I just wanted to get your thoughts on it and what kind of impact
you think it might have on the competition as a whole long-term?
Erm...
I actually was waiting on some official statement about it,
like from Richard Masters or somebody else,
because we all know there are obviously concerns about human rights issues.
It's clear we all think the same there.
What will it mean for football?
A few months ago, we had a massive issue, the whole football world,
with 12 clubs trying to build a Super League,
and rightly so.
It didn't happen.
But this is kind of creating a 'super team'. It's pretty much the same.
Guaranteed spots in the Champions League - in a few years time, not immediately.
With how Financial Fair Play is used nowadays,
nobody knows - does it still exist or not?
It is like it is.
Newcastle fans will love it, of course,
but for the rest it just means there is a new superpower in Newcastle.
Money cannot buy everything, but it can over time. It will take time.
They have enough money to make a few wrong decisions,
to then make the right decisions, and then they will be where they want to be.
So I don't think that will be avoided in the long term,
but everybody knows that, and obviously the Premier League or Richard Masters
thought, "Yeah, let's give it a go."
It's not the first time, as far as I know it's now the third club that is owned by a country.
I'm not sure how many countries are still out there with the financial power and interest
to do so, but this is how it is and that's what everybody has to deal with.
For yourself, Jürgen, obviously we've got the situation regarding Fabinho and Alisson,
what is their availability going to be for this weekend?
Or is it a case of them going straight to Madrid?
What frustration is there that there's not been a better solution to this?
The problem with this answer is, when somebody writes it,
when I use the word 'frustration' it's, Oh, my God, Klopp is frustrated about that."
I’m not. We have no chance, obviously;
somebody decided to give Brazil the opportunity to play last night,
so a few hours ago, and somebody made a decision
that we have to play on Saturday at 12.30. It is all not in our hands.
If we say something, it is always the same people saying the same stuff:
"Yeah, that’s why you have a big squad…"
That’s all clear, but you have a big squad not for issues
YOU HAVE with football associations because they put in tournaments -
five players have to play there, four players have to play there,
but then you still have a league game to play.
As you maybe know, Atletico Madrid is not playing at the weekend -
our next opponent in the Champions League.
Something like that would never happen here, and if it did then it would be like,
"Oh my god, how can they do it for them?" and stuff like this.
So, we’ve known it for a while, we made our decision a while ago,
we had to sort quarantine issues and all these kind of things,
so the decision we made is the boys will not be here -
they will go directly to Madrid, wait there for us
and then hopefully be able to play against Atletico.
They will come back slightly later than us,
10 days [is] over then and then they can come back
and are in our normal procedure again, and that’s it.
And Trent, and Diogo, are they definitely available this weekend,
and how long will it be until Thiago is available to you again?
Yes, Trent and Diogo are available, at least they were yesterday.
Thiago, I don't know.
It still takes a little bit of time.
That's a bit disappointing, but we knew that as well for a few days now,
that it will not go that quick. We have to wait.
Hi, Jürgen. Can I go back to the situation with the potential new player
challenging at the top of the Premier League.
Is it as straightforward as money, or are there other factors that can turn a club
into one that can challenge at the top?
Of course, much more important than money is obviously good decisions.
It was always possible, it's just more difficult.
I'm not concerned about that, I only described the situation.
We won the Champions League two years ago
and there were already two countries involved in the tournament,
and with brilliant teams.
So football is a wonderful game, you can still win games even when the financial power
of the opponent is much bigger than your own.
Honestly, I'm really not concerned, but you all know it,
you need our voice, that's why you're asking all the Premier League managers
what do they say, but you know it already.
It will not happen overnight, and Newcastle are not safe in the league this year,
it's not 100 per cent sure they'll stay in the league,
that would slow down the process a bit for sure,
but we all know there are some people whose football knowledge is big enough.
I think there will be a lot of changes in the next few years,
it's a massive project, but it's football still,
so of course you can win football games against them, in the future as well.
But, like I said, it's clear and we all know it -
in five, six, seven years' time, if the owners are patient enough,
this new superpower -
or old superpower, because they were already successful in the past -
and the new owners have enough money to buy the whole league,
so maybe they fancy that at some point
and it opens up again the same chances for everybody!
We'll see.
Well, you have a Premier League game to win tomorrow against Watford...
Thank you for mentioning that!
But you are facing a team with a new manager.
Were you surprised that they made a change...
How can you be surprised that Watford makes a change?
I respect all football teams, I respect Claudio Ranieri a lot,
but from my own situation as a football manager,
it's really harsh how Watford are dealing with managers.
I don't understand that.
You learn the name of your new colleague and then he's already gone,
that's pretty much how it is.
I don't like that, and I have to say that.
I have no problem with Claudio at all, the opposite, I like him a lot,
he is a really calm and relaxed guy,
but how can you be surprised when Watford makes a change?
I've been six years in the country,
I don't know how many Watford managers I've faced already.
But now it's Claudio. It makes it more difficult obviously,
we used more footage and situations from Sampdoria,
where Claudio coached last season.
We know about him, we faced him a couple of times,
I've known him for a long time, so...
We have to be flexible, let me say it like this,
but when we prepare an opponent we always start with focusing on us.
This time, we have to do that even more
because we don't know a lot about the opponent!
We have to play our game and there will be no excuses in the end,
we will just try to play a really good game,
and if we play really good then we are difficult to play whoever is in the dugout,
whoever is on the pitch, and that's what we'll try to do.
Jürgen, just staying on Claudio Ranieri,
he spoke this week about how his brain was 'forever young',
and the fact that he loves being in football management.
He's going to be the eldest Premier League manager
after Roy Hodgson has gone, and he said he could keep managing till he's 80.
I know that you say you don't see yourself managing that far down the line, that age,
but is your brain forever young?
I hope so! First and foremost, congratulations to Claudio,
he's now 69, and when I see him on the screen he looks younger than me!
He obviously has a good genetic basis.
But on the other side, that's all a personal decision, how you do it,
when you are lucky enough that you can make the decision.
I think he has had probably had more than 15 clubs,
so definitely more than I can ever have,
because I'm already 54 and I'm not sure I can catch up in the next 15 years!
So, yes, I hope that when I'm 79, 89 I'm still in the shape Claudio is now,
but we can only use the time we have in our hands
and not think too much about 15 years' time.
James from TalkSport. See if you can answer the Claudio Ranieri question for us, James.
I think it's something like 21 clubs in 35 years.
A lot of catching up to do!
Jürgen, I wanted to ask you about analysing Claudio's Sampdoria,
rather than Watford this season -
what have you learnt from that analysis and how much impact do you think
he will have been able to have in 10 days or so at Watford?
When you look at their last game against Leeds when they lost,
Watford had a good idea about the game.
We all know Leeds do man-marking,
Watford tried to build up with their football in wide positions,
that's actually what you have to do, but the problem is when you lose the ball,
the opposition has more space for counter-attacks.
That is what Leeds used and why they won.
I heard some of what Claudio said last week and he wants to close the spaces.
"We have to be more compact and use the speed in the squad."
We don't know exactly what system they'll play,
[based on] Sampdoria, 4-4-2 probably,
Watford started the season in a 4-3-3, but then 4-2-3-1.
It is six years since I came new to this club, but I wanted to bring stability.
You don't start by telling your players 20 different offensive patterns,
you want to start by making them compact and defending well,
and that is what we expect.
If it is completely different, we have to deal with that.
I do not have a crystal ball so we have to guess a little bit.
With the things we know, we think we will be close at least to what will happen,
and that's what we'll try to use.
I make it 21 clubs, by the way.
So did James!
You're affirming his information, that's two sources.
Jürgen, I just wondered if I could ask about personnel in defence.
Joe Gomez has come back from a serious injury last season,
but how is he progressing and what does he need to do
to get into the starting XI more consistently?
Nothing special, he's in top shape, really good.
I know that Gareth [Southgate] reacts from time to time
and if a player is not playing for his club then he's not playing for the national team,
obviously there's a special rule for Mr Stones,
but Joe didn't get called up and it would have helped him to have some games.
I really think he's an exceptional centre-half,
but it's very good for us at at the moment that we have five exceptional centre-halves
and Nat Phillips is not making the squad most of the time,
because the numbers don't work, but he trains exceptionally as well.
Ibou and Joe too. So, Joe has nothing to do differently,
he just has to continue working and everything will be fine.
We need the boys over the year, it's still early in the season,
you need to find rhythm, changing every week then makes not too much sense.
It's always clear, last year taught us we need at least four centre-halves,
then when they're healthy you get all these questions.
That's how you build a squad, especially when you had the situation from last year.
So it's now not perfectly comfortable every week for the players,
but it's the situation and they deal really well with it.
The boys know, the time will come for them, the quality they have is outstanding,
so for me at the moment it's a very good situation.
Hi, Jürgen. Can I just clarify the quarantine situation?
You said Fab and Alisson are going to Spain but coming back slightly later,
what's the rationale for that?
They have to.
Thursday.
Because the last game they played in a red-list country was Colombia,
don’t ask me now exactly which day,
but Wednesday to Thursday at one minute past midnight,
then it is 10 days, and from that moment they can come back.
These are the rules at the moment and we cannot change that.
They could have flown in to England, but with all the quarantine stuff
then that would have meant they have to isolate from their families and stuff like this.
Ali has three kids and being away already 12 days with the national team
and then 10 days in isolation, then two weeks here, the same rubbish again.
We need solutions for that and they are still not there.
As I said, I know always when we mention these kind of things
then you all go for it and say, "Why should they be treated differently?"
Tell me now people who are two or three weeks away from the family?
It all makes no sense, but it is not in our hands.
We get the information, try to find a solution and take the solution.
I don’t think it happened a lot of times before that players are not available
for 'federation reasons', because the federations -
which is the federation of, yes, the countries,
but then you go down to the clubs and stuff like this -
we ask only for a few hours, that would have made it a little bit more likely
that they could have played.
Bringing them in for a 12.30 kickoff there is no chance to play,
no chance for them.
But if we would have played, for example, at seven o’clock then we would have tried it.
Neither Watford nor the Premier League was open to that
because that is their understanding of fair competition, but that’s how it is.
As I said, we know it already for a while and now we dealt with it.
We didn’t make the decision yesterday, we made it a bit earlier,
so we knew about it and now we know how to deal with the situation.
By the way, talking about federations -
Curtis Jones came back injured from the U21s.
That’s not OK but it is really difficult
to get in proper contact even with the English federation,
because they just do what they want.
He didn’t train, wasn’t involved in the first game, they didn't do a scan,
and then he played a few minutes in the second game against Andorra - great.
Very important he played there...
Came back with a slight injury and not available tomorrow.
So these are the situations we have to deal with,
and this is why we have these massive squads
and can just use players like machines.
When the federations don’t start helping us -
and I mean all of them: whoever it is, the Premier League, the FA -
they have to think about the game and not their own interests,
but that is how it is in the moment.
I’ve talked about it for six or seven years but no-one is listening.
That's it.
I only asked about his quarantine status, but thank you for that.
Just to clarify then, the players are quarantining in Spain
so that when they come back, it will be normal for them?
Exactly, they played the last game in Brazil,
they already had four days there,
not in a red-list country, that's what counts,
and then another six days in a non-red-list country,
so then they can come back and start immediately with us.
So even when they go from bubble to bubble to bubble, it's still 10 days,
and that's fine, that's the solution for us now, and that's it.