“In March 2016 and again in August of the same year, news of Chinese conglomerate SinoFortone offering hundreds of millions of pounds for a stake in the club was greeted with feverish anticipation on Merseyside. But FSG have not sold. Klopp’s circumspect view on a possible change of ownership might have partially informed their stance. When the link with China hit the headlines Klopp told the Americans explicitly that it was they who had his trust. ‘We chose Jürgen as manager, but we’re very conscious of the fact that this was a mutual decision, that he chose us, likewise,’ Gordon says. ‘I don’t want to use the word “legitimacy”, but his decision has validated everything that those of us that have been working on the football side of the club have been seeking to achieve.”