Liverpool are the latest major club to allow a documentary team behind the scenes, with a series set to follow Jurgen Klopp’s final season at Anfield.
The Premier League leaders announced on Wednesday that a multi-episode documentary about Liverpool will be released after the end of the 2023-24 season. It has not been confirmed yet where the series will air.
This news follows last week’s shock announcement that German Klopp will step down as Liverpool manager at the end of the season.
“With this being my final season,” the 56-year-old said on the club’s website, “I thought we should provide a rare opportunity,” for viewers to have, “more of an inside look at what makes this club so special”.
“Thanks to this new documentary series, viewers will be able to see what I see every day at this great club, and understand those amazing people more.”
Liverpool said the series, which will cover the men’s and women’s teams, “will subtly capture the team,” in “areas agreed by the manager and players, without encroaching on private spaces”.
This is not the first time that film crews have been offered a look behind the scenes at Anfield. Being: Liverpool was a six-part documentary that followed Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool team during the 2012-13 season, when they finished seventh in the Premier League.
Other British clubs have also allowed cameras into their dressing rooms and training grounds in recent years. Here are a few examples.
Sunderland
Title: Sunderland ‘Til I Die series 1 & 2.
The original, for Netflix at least, and – many would argue – the best. Season one charts a woeful 2017-18 campaign for the Black Cats, which saw them drop into League One after a second successive relegation. Season two followed the 2019-20 season that was curtailed by Covid-19.
There are several highlights including defender Jack Rodwell refusing to leave the club and allow them to be free of his wages after relegation to the Championship, club owner Charlie Methven telling his communications manager to fabricate attendance figures and manager Chris Coleman almost squaring up to a fan who confronts him after the club have been relegated to League One.
Star moment: Methven suggesting during a meeting that the team’s walk-in music should be updated to Tiesto’s trance anthem Adagio for Strings.
Leeds
Title: Take Us Home: Leeds United
Series one tells the story of the 2018-19 season, where Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League, while series two looks at the following campaign, when the Yorkshire club finally ended their 16-year stint outside of England’s top tier.
Argentine coach Bielsa remains a peripheral figure, featuring much less than local lad Kalvin Phillips’ grandmother, Val.
Star moment: Sporting director Victor Orta almost crying after Mateusz Klich scores a penalty in a 5-0 drubbing of Stoke that sends Leeds back to the top of the Championship.
Manchester City
Title: All or Nothing: Manchester City
Cameras go inside Pep Guardiola’s dressing room as they win the Premier League with a record 100 points at the end of the 2017-18 season.
Guardiola is the star at the centre of this hagiography. Dressing room scenes such as one where he diagrams a potential goal opening for Kevin de Bruyne against Leicester – which the midfielder then scores – build a picture of an obsessive, passionate genius.
Star moment: Guardiola assembling his team after winning the title to tell them that they have “destroyed” the Premier League, just like he went from “a ball boy” to a manger who “destroyed football” in his four years as head coach of Barcelona.
Tottenham Hotspur
Title: All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur
Spurs get the All or Nothing treatment over the course of the 2019-20 Premier League season. On the pitch, it is a difficult campaign, with the north London club finishing sixth in a season that was disrupted by lockdowns.
The series starts with Mauricio Pochettino being replaced by a very different character in Jose Mourinho. The famously combative Portuguese coach wants to build a nastier team. There are some standout scenes including Mourinho telling Dele Alli he is a “lazy guy”.
Star moment: Danny Rose confronting the manager about his playing time – foreshadowing the left-back’s loan to Newcastle.
Arsenal
Title: All or Nothing: Arsenal
If the Manchester City and Spurs editions in this franchise give us closer access to more established managers, the 2022 instalment takes a look at one of the Premier League’s younger, rising coaches in Mikel Arteta.
The Spaniard’s esoteric motivational tactics include asking the players to hold hands, enrolling a club photographer to give a pep talk and playing You’ll Never Walk Alone in training ahead of a match at Anfield.
The 2021-22 season which this series captures was a rollercoaster for the Gunners, who started with three straight losses, got themselves into the Champions League places and then capitulated spectacularly to hand fourth place to bitter rivals Tottenham.
Star moment: Sporting director Edu learning that Arteta’s star striker Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang has taken an unsanctioned trip to Barcelona – ultimately preceding his sale to the Catalan club.
Wrexham
Title: Welcome to Wrexham
This feel-good series tells the story of the Welsh club’s unlikely rise from the ashes after being bought by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Series one charts the 2021-22 season, where the Red Dragons missed out on promotion to League Two with a defeat to Grimsby Town in the play-offs.
Series two tells the story of their National League winning 2022-23 campaign. Along the way, Reynolds and McElhenney capture Welsh hearts and minds with star signings such as Paul Mullin and Ben Foster, plus magic moments like the 12-goal thriller where they beat Barnet 7-5.
Star moment: Reynolds having an emotional embrace with Foster after the keeper saved a 96th-minute penalty against promotion rivals Notts County to leapfrog them at the top of the league.
