TNT Sports have hit back at Jurgen Klopp after he suggested he would never watch the broadcaster again after leaving Liverpool.
Klopp jokingly took a swipe at the channel during his press conference yesterday and blamed them for fixture congestion.
Despite playing Spurs this Sunday at 4:30pm, he mentioned that the broadcaster often pick Liverpool for the early kick-off on Saturday and said he won’t miss that when he leaves at the end of this season.
He took aim at TNT among other broadcasters for the “criminal” fixture congestion affecting English clubs, suggesting that it played a role in the Premier League’s under performance in European competitions.
Klopp said: “The Premier League is the best league in the world. It is not overrated, the players are overworked. Somebody needs to help the people.
“You cut off one game (FA Cup replays), you give the top teams three more Champions League games. Everyone has a reason to say, ‘You cannot cut off these games, they are important!’ But you cannot sort it all the time.
“I had a discussion the other day with colleagues from my favourite TV channel which I will definitely never watch again, TNT. And people always say, ‘They pay you! They give money for football’. It’s not that, it’s the other way around, football pays them.
“They broadcast and deliver it but it’s not like TNT or Sky is doing really well and can pay all of you.
“You have to become a partner of football again and not just the squeezer. That’s just a little advice from an old man on the way out.
He continued by joking: “I was waiting for Amnesty International to go to them [TNT]. I would like to be part of that meeting when someone says, ‘Liverpool 12.30’ and the whole room bursts into [laughter].
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“I would like to be there. The quickest turnaround in the whole world… Liverpool!
“They say you have to fight more and go for it. It’s absolutely insane. But they are still happy.
“They like subscribers, you can take me off that list. If you are ever looking for a pundit, I speak English and could do it, but… what was the question by the way?”
TNT’s social media team were quick to snap back at Klopp with a jokey comeback.
Referring to the fact that Klopp will step down as Liverpool manager at the end of this season, the broadcaster suggested he would be applying to join them as a pundit.
They posted to X with the caption “One new applicant” and showed a mock-up of Klopp’s CV.
The image listed Klopp’s achievements with Liverpool, saying he was a Champions League and Premier League winner.
But the image also showed that he was unwilling to work on Saturday’s at 12:30pm – their designated TV slot from the Premier League.
One fan replied by saying: “Would be quite funny having him as a pundit tbh..”
While another wrote: “This could have been funny if Klopp wasn’t 100% right.”
By Dave Kidd
NOW we know Jurgen Klopp’s final major trophy haul at Liverpool — one Champions League, one Premier League, one FA Cup, two League Cups and (if you must) a World Club Cup.
But where does his reign stand among the greatest of the Premier League era?
In black-and-white terms, Klopp is way behind Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola, the only two men to have won multiple Premier Leagues and a Champions League at the same club.
Those two sit alongside Brian Clough, Bob Paisley and Sir Matt Busby as the undoubted all-time managerial greats of the English game.
But Klopp ranks in the next tier down — with Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho (the Chelsea version), Bill Shankly and Don Revie.
These were all men with the strength of character to transform their clubs in their own image and enjoy success but who did not win as much as they might have done.
Had Klopp managed to keep his intentions under wraps and ended up with another title, perhaps even a treble or quadruple, he’d have edged himself up into that highest echelon with Ferguson, Guardiola, Clough, Paisley and Busby.
But deciding the timing and the manner of your exit is one of the toughest calls for any manager or sportsman.
Klopp got it wrong.
Read Dave Kidd’s take on Klopp’s demise in full here.
Or click here to check out all of Dave Kidd’s articles.
