"Klopp Has Brought a Bit of Magic Back" – The Coral's James Skelly Talks Liverpool

"Music is first – it's what I do – but I understand football more. You're playing to win, whereas there's lots of grey areas in music."

Formed in 1996 on Merseyside, The Coral could have had little idea how grey those areas would become. Yet here they are, 20 years later, one of a handful of contenders for last-band-standing, a stone cold classic in their armoury (the timeless Dreaming Of You) and with a new album released this March.

A successful navigation of the industry's recent choppy waters has clearly required a pragmatism from frontman James Skelly ("I'm in music so I don't get negative about it – it is what it is") that extends to his team: Liverpool. Conventional wisdom has his club locked in a downward spiral for over two decades, but that would ignore an enviable haul of silverware at the start of this century as well as other purple patches since Skelly the fan came of age. "They've failed in terms of where they were, but if you look at where they are in terms of wages and money it's about right," he says. "They should've won the title in the nineties, but since then I'd say that what Liverpool have achieved – not for the reputation of the club but for the reality of the money – is about right. You can get confused between what Liverpool should be and has been."

Born too late, yet with an instinctive respect for the title-winning sides of the eighties (Barnes, Beardsley and Aldridge readily trip off the tongue), it's the overlooked Roy Evans-era that 35-year-old Skelly remembers most fondly: "I really liked the way his sides played football. We were as good as United's team but they had Fergie. If Fergie had our players I think we would've won the league. Collymore, Fowler, McManaman…class. I know we didn't win loads, and the 'Spice Boys' and all that, but I have good memories." I wonder if there was a moment when the penny dropped – that the title wasn't returning anytime soon and these were in fact the wilderness years? He replies with two words – "Sean Dundee" – and a knowing laughter ripples through the dressing room at one of football's many private jokes.

A lot has changed since the days of Candy-covered shirts, King Kenny and rap howlers. Too much for Skelly, who won't be alone in feeling like he's been left watching from a distance. "Football seems bloated. I'm not one of those who complains about it, but it has lost something. I notice now if we lose, I get over it a lot more quickly. The Premier League will get so greedy it will just devour itself and everything it's selling: the atmosphere and the quality will be reduced by the want for money."

Could it be that his own club's manager is the one to affect change? It's tempting to add to Jurgen Klopp's dazzling smile a metaphorical shining armour crafted from his fan-empowering tenure at Borussia Dortmund; to view the Bundesliga itself as a template for the English game's future. Was his recent intervention on the £77 ticket protest the start of something? "He was quite diplomatic but he's not going to walk in there and say this needs sorting out. [Current owners] Fenway Sports Group don't really care about Liverpool. It was more to avoid a PR disaster, but it's still too much. No ticket should be more than £20. The thing is, don't buy Jose Enrique and pay him to go to safari parks for four years!"

A genial 'gaffer' in a notoriously sour-faced industry, it seems likely Klopp's infectious personality will buy him more time than most. "Well, I don't think he takes things too seriously; the reality with football is that it's all great [right now], but if you lose a few games next season everyone will be like 'Klopp talks too much!' Like Brendan Rodgers when he was doing well, everyone was like, 'Aren't his new teeth great!' Then when he was terrible it was like 'Take your fucking gnashers out!' Everyone loved his teeth when he was doing well," says Skelly.

Rodgers' can't have helped himself with an infamous Brent-like performance on the recent car-crash Being Liverpool TV series – a concept surely even Graham Taylor would have "not liked". Skelly explains: "He didn't have a choice, that's why they went for Rodgers. Do you think Klopp would do that?! I don't hate FSG, I just think Americans maybe don't understand the Premier League. If you look at American owners… Randy Lerner: probably created the worst ever team to play in the league. The Glazers: handled Fergie leaving horrendously – maybe the worst United team since the eighties. Hicks and Gillet almost bankrupted us. FSG have turned us into the new Spurs, which is why I don't want Spurs to win the league – because then we will actually become Spurs," Skelley laughs. "But Klopp has brought a bit of magic back with his passion."

The Coral's debut record came out in 2002, slotting into a hard-to-imagine-now vibrant British band culture. But while football has become an increasingly global force, guitar groups are now a minority sport. Rather than look for excuses, it's refreshing to hear an honest assessment: "Maybe there haven't been any good ones?" the singer suggests, "Music's completely split now – you are major label or you're alternative, whereas in the past you could bring alternative influences to a major label format. Its not really about that anymore. I do miss in a way the edge that's gone from pop music. I think alternative music has thrived, but I think pop music has suffered."

Are music and football – both well-worn escape routes (especially where Skelly comes from) – as vital as they were, say 50 years ago? "In a way, yeah. I don't know if being a rock star – the fame and the money – is still the same, but I think it's the same in terms of escapism. If you're a nut case and you wanna hit the road then it's still there to be taken, but I don't know about being the next Mick Jagger, whether people want or relate to that anymore."

If Jagger is no longer the benchmark, what constitutes success for Skelly in 2016? His band have just made their most warmly received record for years. His club? "For me it's about winning trophies. All this fourth as a trophy, Arsenal players taking selfies – I'd take the FA Cup over fourth. I'd take the Carling Cup over fourth! We got in the Champions League: we were shite and got kicked out! There's a new generation of fans that live for saying 'I told you so'. You see them writing blogs and they just go on about stats. It's the same in music – why can't they just be a fan?

"So for me it's about winning a trophy. A day out. Enjoying being a fan."

@dantickner