Klopp reveals admiration for Gunners boss but insists ‘I am a different guy’.
Borussia Dortmund head-coach Jurgen Klopp has praised Arsene Wenger and says he is ‘proud’ at being mooted as a possible successor to the Arsenal boss.
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The Gunners travel to Germany for a crunch Champions League group clash on Wednesday, following Dortmund’s 2-1 win at the Emirates Stadium last month.
Ahead of the encounter, Klopp has admitted his admiration for his opposite number Wenger and says the Gunners have played ‘nearly perfect football’ under the Frenchman.
“For me, he is Sir Arsene Wenger, he is really something, I love him,” Klopp told The Guardian.
“When I watch Arsenal in the last 10 years, it is nearly perfect football, but we all know they didn’t win a title. In Britain they say that they like Arsenal but they have to win something. Who wins the title? Chelsea, but with different football, I would say.”
Klopp, 46, has been likened to Wenger by the media but insists he is a ‘different guy’.
“This is the philosophy of Arsene Wenger. I love this but I cannot coach this because I am a different guy. You think many things are similar? I hope so in some moments, but there are big differences, too.”
Many Arsenal fans would like to see Klopp installed as Wenger’s eventual successor but the Gunners, or any club, will have to wait until at least 2018 to sign the former Mainz boss.
“Borussia Dortmund is the only club in the world where if I speak to a young player, he knows that I am his coach for the next four-and-a-half years,” Klopp says. “We want to have this situation. The players are similar to the journalists. They always think: ‘Ah, he says this and then Real Madrid call and he is away.’ But this is the message: Everybody can call but nothing will happen. This is for sure and then we will see what’s with the players.”
But Klopp did concede he was ‘proud’ to be linked with the North London outfit.
“It makes me proud to hear that some Arsenal fans might want me, but it’s not important for me to be proud. My mother is proud. It’s a better feeling than if nobody knows me but it doesn’t help me in the morning, it doesn’t help me in the evening and it doesn’t help me through the day.”
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