It increasingly feels as if football itself will take a backseat for the remainder of the season. The damage done by the European Super League proposals could be irrevocable for some owners, with Arsenal fans launching a mass protest on Friday night against Stan Kroenke ahead of their defeat to Everton. Supporters of Manchester United, Spurs and Chelsea have also staged demonstrations and unsurprisingly, Liverpool fans wasted no time in making their voices heard outside Anfield. Now that the ESL has collapsed, the protests on Merseyside before Liverpool's Premier League match against Newcastle were more muted than they might otherwise have been. It was still a huge talking point, however, and Jurgen Klopp was inevitably pressed on it in his interview with BT Sport. And while he reiterated that he had opposed the breakaway league, he made the surprising move of calling out fans for protesting - with Gary Lineker responding furiously. "What I didn't like in that moment - and the Leeds supporters were a good example (before Monday night's game against Liverpool) - and they're not worse than others, or better than others, it's just that they went on us [the coaches and players]. We had nothing to do with that," Klopp said. "We are just the faces of the club - [just] as our supporters had nothing to do with that... We had not even an idea, we didn't even know about it. So we had nothing to do with that and it's really important for me that we don't forget that. "It's constantly mentioned - 'Liverpool Football Club, Liverpool Football Club'. No, it was not Liverpool Football Club - the representatives of Liverpool Football Club. We have to make a difference."

Klopp added:

"When I see the pictures now, the last few days, yesterday Arsenal and the Chelsea stuff, I really think - you all have to calm down. 

"Yesterday on Sky, three journalists sitting all the time and talking a whole day about it. It's winding up people. 

"We are still in a pandemic. People are now there and without face masks and shouting their opinion out. All the pundits have to calm down as well a little bit because, yes, nobody wanted it. Definitely. But now let's deal with it and not constantly show 'we didn't want it'...

"We know it and the people who made the decisions, they know it now, I'm 100% sure. So just relax a little bit because we have to carry on."

Gary Lineker responds 

Some might feel the Liverpool boss voiced some valid concerns about whether it was a safe time to protest, but others won't be happy. 

Gary Lineker was among those who felt the interview was "tone deaf", writing on Twitter:

"A handful of owners try to tear our game apart and may well try to do so again, and we’re just told to ‘calm down and move on’.

"Huge admirer of Klopp but he’s spectacularly tone deaf here. Without the fans of our beautiful game it would be much uglier today."