Gondolas carry mourning

Some time ago, when we still knew rain, when water flowed from glaciers into our valleys and the rivers soaked the meadows with the now golden water, we of course visited Venice. You have to be in the lagoon city once in your life. My favorite time for this was always November, when the fog wafted through the streets and the atmosphere was mystical. Morbid somehow. Decay and transience seemed to be constant companions. It was easy to get lost. Luckily the maze had its limits, because somehow you always ended up on the Grand Canal.

But even back then the sentence in a wonderful film was probably true: “Nothing is as it seems”. Back then, the gondolas still wore mourning in the British-Italian horror film with Donald Sutherland and Juli Christie. Back then, we still got goosebumps from the gruesome scenes. Nowadays it's almost a children's film. The boundaries of fearlessness have also shifted. And the gondolas no longer even bear mourning, but are. Especially the gondoliers who no longer sing or take great turns with their tourists, like Luigi once did, who of course wanted to sing like Caruso and thus scared away his guests. Even before climate change. Venice during carnival times: The water level also drops in happy times. © ANSA / Andrea Merola

Now the gondolas are stuck in the mud of the lagoon. Waves no longer splash against the walls of the palazzi. It's almost like a slow death. Where are we? The classic 1973 film by British director Nicolas Roeg comes to mind again. “But only a brief moment separates the past from the future.” And it continues, almost dramatically: “In between lies the present.”

A complete renovation as a solution Maybe Jürgen Klopp should take a look at this film history, although that would probably be counterproductive in his current situation, as his Liverpool FC are currently 21 points behind league leaders Arsenal FC. The coaching icon on the island has his back to the wall because nothing, absolutely nothing, works anymore like it did in the heyday when the “Reds” took the stars from the sky. The emotional situation in his club is also drifting towards a morbid mood, which of course fits perfectly with the situation in his adopted homeland, because since the political clown Boris Johnson gave up the helm and Queen Elisabeth had to look for a new throne, the whole of England has been stuck somehow the gondolas in Venice. Brexit is proving to be a treacherous and devious wrong decision. Jürgen Klopp has Liverpool FC in his heart – but the “Reds” are in a sporting crisis. © APA/afp / GLYN KIRK

But what really happened in Liverpool? Jürgen Klopp answers the question in his own way. He has announced that he will radically rebuild the squad for next season. New players, lots of new players are coming. It's a well-known mechanism. Klopp is a motivational speaker, someone who can win people over to his side with a lot of charisma. But over the years and the same mechanisms in an almost unchanged team, habits creep in. Ears on the move, eyes on the ground. After all, everyone knows the announcements and the structures. Habit kills tension. In these cases there are only two options. Either the coach leaves his team and looks for new challenges or he changes the team, because Klopp is also new for the new ones. The many coach changes make it clear that it is probably much cheaper and probably easier to just replace the trainer.

The good example of SC Freiburg As always, there are of course opposite examples, but they underline the thesis of ongoing player changes. Christian Streich has a constant fluctuation in his squad at SC Freiburg. Every new season is always a new beginning for him and for the club. He lives and shapes the present and thus perfectly fills the space between past and future. This is basically great cinema and also great art in these fast-moving times that show no mercy for failure. Jürgen Klopp hasn't managed that yet and maybe that's much harder than winning any title.

Even at FC Südtirol, despite the absolutely understandable euphoria at the moment, you should always keep in mind that their coach Pierpaolo Bisoli is also a motivational artist. He took away the team's fear of Serie B, brought an entire region on board and infected everyone with his fire. Not just the players. Similarities with Jürgen Klopp are evident. The present can, should and may still triumph. But the future is coming, for sure, and then everyone should be prepared, because as the mysterious saying goes, when the gondolas were still active and at least wore mourning: “You were warned. Nothing is as it seems."

The author: Sigi Heinrich The multi-award-winning sports journalist and TV commentator (including the German Television Award, Bavarian Sports Award, Biathlon Award, World Sports Trophy) dedicates his column “Sigi's Peaks” to the entire diversity of sports and sometimes poaches with enthusiasm in foreign regions . Sometimes with a smile and a wink, sometimes seriously or deliberately provocative. There should be something for everyone. After studying sports at the Technical University of Munich, Heinrich was editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung for ten years and has been a permanent member of the sports channel's commentators since he moved to Eurosport 34 years ago.

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Gondolas carry mourning

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