A class act

In this day and age when phones and email are so prevalent, many people forget the power - not to mention the joy - of a well-written letter.

Today, we’re sharing the first of two brilliant letters written by two legendary, but very different, football managers - Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho.

Klopp took over as manager at Premier League leaders Liverpool in October 2015. The German arrived at Anfield after taking a short break from football following an impressive seven-year stay with Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.

Often credited with popularising the football philosophy known as ‘Gegenpressing,’ whereby a team, after losing possession, immediately attempts to win back possession, rather than falling back to regroup, Klopp is regarded by many as one of the best managers in the world.

Today’s letter, which was tweeted by @eliistender10 is written by the Reds boss in response to a young Manchester United fan, who wrote to him asking him to stop Liverpool from winning games. Here’s how he replied:

Dear Daragh.

Firstly, I would like to thank you for writing to me. I know you did not send me good luck or anything like that, but it is always good to hear from a young football fan no matter what, so I appreciate you getting in touch.

Unfortunately, on this occasion, I cannot grant your request, not through choice anyway. As much as you want Liverpool to lose, it’s my job to do everything that I can to help Liverpool to win as there are millions of people around the world who want that to happen, so I really do not want to let them down.

Luckily for you, we have lost games in the past and we will lose games in the future, because that is football. The problem is when you are 10 years old you think that things will always be as they are now, but if there is one thing I can tell you as a 52-year-old, it is that this most definitely isn’t the case.

Having read your letter, though, I think I can safely say that one thing that will not change is your passion for football and your club. Manchester United are lucky to have you.

I hope that if we are lucky enough to win more games and maybe even lift some more trophies, you will not be too disappointed because although our clubs are great rivals, we also share a great respect for one another. This, to me, is what football is all about.

Take care and good luck.

Jurgen Klopp.

Now that’s class. While our business continues to change, letters are still very important to us and will remain so in the future. Today, we still deliver almost 13 letters for every one parcel, and the UK sends more letters per head than anyone else in Europe, bar Germany. Perhaps that’s where Klopp gets his love of letter writing from!