It is unusual for Germany’s leading business magazine to place a football coach on its front cover but Manager Magazin broke with tradition this month by featuring Jürgen Klopp. Liverpool’s financial turnover is not big enough for the club to warrant such attention but their manager is a big enough personality to inspire those who hold the reins at global corporations.

Chief executives were asked who they looked to for new ideas and motivation and a theme developed. They named Klopp. Indeed, they did more than name Klopp. It became clear that such is the admiration for the 51-year-old former Borussia Dortmund and Mainz coach, that company directors are keen to do business with Liverpool so that they end up in the same room as