Sir Alex Ferguson joked that handing over the LMA Manager of the Year award to Jurgen Klopp was “absolute agony,” before advising Klopp to “go to a club with history.”
Klopp and his team have had an outstanding season.
Despite finishing one point behind Premier League champions Manchester City, Liverpool won the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup after two dramatic penalty shootout victories over Chelsea.
The 54-year-old German beat Pep Guardiola to the LMA Manager of the Year award and the Sir Alex Ferguson trophy at the LMA Awards dinner in London, owing to his recent success.
Klopp expressed his gratitude for receiving the prestigious LMA award on stage at the event. “Having my colleagues vote for you is obviously the most important prize you can get,” the German explained.
“I don’t believe in individual prizes in football generally, it is a team sport and I would be nothing without these boys there. It is all about what we can do together and what we did together.”
Evidently, as he handed over his Manager of the Year trophy on Tuesday night, former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson exclaimed, “This is agony, absolute agony!”
Ferguson, of course, spent 26 years at Old Trafford, winning 26 trophies between 1986 and 2013. “I should have told him to go to Scunthorpe United,” the Scot joked later.
Liverpool manager Kenny Daglish responded by saying that he initially “couldn’t understand anything he [Ferguson] said,” but that he has improved since working with Andy Robertson and Kenny Daglish.
Ferguson also presented Klopp with the Sir Alex Ferguson Trophy on the night.
