James Milner reveals Jurgen Klopp banned air conditioning on Liverpool team bus

James Milner has revealed how former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp used extreme methods to push his players during pre-season tours, including refusing to let them switch on the air conditioning while they were stuck in traffic.

Speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, the former Liverpool player described some of Klopp’s routines and the detailed way the German managed the effects of jet lag during overseas trips.

Klopp would not allow Liverpool’s players to follow either the time zone of the country they were visiting or British time completely. Instead, he used a schedule somewhere between the two, with the aim of reducing the impact of the time difference when the squad returned to England.

That approach, however, meant the players often began their day with a demanding training session.

“We did not operate on the time of the country we were visiting, but we were not on English time either,” Milner said. “We were somewhere in between so the jet lag would not affect us as much.”

He added: “So the tour schedule would begin with us waking up and going straight into a running session before breakfast.”

The timing often placed the session in the hottest part of the day.

“According to the tour schedule, it would be 12.30 or one o’clock in the afternoon, which was the hottest part of the day,” Milner said. “We would run laps around the pitch in the most intense heat of the day. It was incredibly hot.”

The players would then return to the team bus, but Klopp would not let them use the air conditioning.

“We would get on the bus and he would refuse to let us turn the air conditioning on,” Milner said.

“We would sit there for about half an hour stuck in traffic, with everyone melting in the heat without any air conditioning. I do not know whether he did it because he thought we would feel cold, or for another reason.”

Milner also said Klopp’s personality away from the cameras was exactly the same as the one seen by the public.

“Yes, I think the great thing about Jurgen is that you know exactly what you are going to get from him,” he said.

“Some people are completely different in front of the cameras and behind them, but he was exactly as you see him. He had huge energy and demanded the highest standards in everything he did.”

Milner recalled that Klopp’s early training sessions at Liverpool became part of the club’s folklore.

“His standards were incredible and clearly infectious, and the training was extremely tough when you first joined the team,” he said.

“You would not believe that there were players being sick beside the pitch. It was absolutely relentless.”