Interview'It fits like a jacket' - why Liverpool feels like home for Sipke Hulshoff
Liverpool reminds Sipke Hulshoff of home and that is one reason why the club ‘fits like a jacket’.
Arne Slot’s first assistant coach remembers feeling an immediate kinship with both city and club when he arrived along with the head coach, his long-term professional partner, last summer.
“What I liked the most from the first days was that all the people were friendly. I saw the cooperation between the people, the cohesion between the people, here,” Hulshoff tells Liverpoolfc.com.
“That is the first thing that I felt immediately: that everybody wants to help you and make you comfortable so that you are at home here.
“Even in pre-season, we hadn’t been here long but we felt so comfortable. We didn’t have to worry about anything, we could just focus totally on our jobs and if you feel at home you can perform at your best.
“The way the people are here is a bit the same as in the part of Holland where I come from, which is a place in the north called Friesland: they have a lot of respect, they always talk to you and they give you a good feeling.
“If you compare Friesland people with Scousers, we also have our own language that is different to the ‘normal’ language of the country!
“And if you look at the people, they are hard workers who only ask three things from you: you have to work hard, you have to do your best and you have to act normal. We had the same at Feyenoord because the people in Rotterdam are also like this.
“I think this is maybe why Liverpool fits, until now, like a jacket.”
Slot recently paid tribute to the team behind the team at Liverpool, who he labelled ‘crucial’ to this season’s Premier League title victory – and Hulshoff agrees totally with the boss.
“Definitely, all the staff here are so important and the tone is set from the moment you step foot in the building,” the assistant says.
“Alex, who is behind the coffee bar, always has a good humour. So, if you come in and maybe you had a bad phone call or something, you come in and he always gives you a good feeling.
“So, it starts already there and you see people sat around the coffee bar, maybe the grounds staff or people from the medical team, people from all different departments together. That makes this club so special. It is a big, big quality of Liverpool: everybody is together and is working together.”
Hulshoff’s first season on Merseyside ended, of course, in championship-winning glory and he admits to being blown away by the size of the club he joined 12 months ago.
“What surprised me the most, in a positive way, is how big this club is,” he concludes.
“Because everywhere you go there are always a lot of Liverpool fans, even when you go to the USA or when we have away games or when we go to Europe.
“There are always a lot of Liverpool fans in front of the hotel and waiting for us at the airport. So, I knew Liverpool was big, but this club is so big.
“It’s unbelievable and it also makes me very proud, that we can be part of maybe the biggest club in the world.
“I feel that at this club – and I think this is also the same for the boss – that of course you need to win prizes and that gives you also more a comfortable feeling, but until now this club fits us like a jacket. That’s how we say it in Holland and I hope we can keep it like this.”