Jürgen Klopp could finally have the last laugh over Pep Guardiola as Man City learn FFP trial date

People around the world will be keenly keeping tabs on Manchester City’s trial for violating the Premier League’s financial rules, which begins on Monday. One man who will certainly have a vested interest is Jurgen Klopp.

At a farewell event for the German at the M&S Bank Arena in May, he joked about how he would celebrate if the Cityzens were found guilty and stripped of the league titles that they won. "You leave this club and you leave this club having won the Premier League once,” host John Bishop said. “There could be a court decision that means you've won the Premier League three times."

"If you organise a bus parade, I'm in,” Klopp responded, to cheers from the audience. “How long it takes, I don't care,” he added. There has been no indication that City would see its titles stripped if found guilty, with a fine, a points deduction or relegation deemed likelier punishments . Nonetheless, if the Cityzens are deemed to have cheated, it would only be further vindication of Klopp’s work.

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Not that it sounds like he needs it. Klopp has always been sanguine about his time at Liverpool. "I'm still a happy man. I came in here tonight and would obviously change a few things, but not for me personally,” he said in May. ”I come here tonight and say goodbye, would you be in a different mood if we had won the league three times instead of one time?”

As usual, he was right. Football moves on, there is always another head coach or new players and more trophies to be won. Liverpool supporters would still be disappointed that Klopp was leaving even if his CV had an additional two Premier League titles in the section under the heading Honors.

But nothing changes the fact that there is a strong chance he deserved to win those trophies. Klopp was faced with the ultimate in end of level boss on two occasions: Manchester City in the spring. Pepe Guardiola’s side always seems to get a boost from somewhere in the final months of a season, stringing together win after win after win.

It is able to do this as it has a squad full of incredibly costly and very well paid players. For Guardiola, rotating the starting XI sees very little drop off in player quality most of the time. Klopp has rarely had that luxury, if ever across the whole squad if occasionally in certain positions.

And we will soon learn if City cheated to gain that advantage. If so, it was miraculous that Liverpool was able to keep pace for as long as it did. That was in part down to the brilliance of Klopp, who will deserve even more credit if the verdict is that he was up against an unfairly financed opponent.