When Jurgen Klopp appeared in the media area after a Paris Paralympics badminton match this summer, you imagined some of the prickliness which had often characterised his discussions with us might have melted away.
Here he was, unencumbered by the sound and fury of football, to support the cause of Paralympic sport and his friend Wojtek Czyz, who had been competing.
But even in that benign environment, there was the distinct sense of a man looking for journalistic landmines. You could feel the chill when football was mentioned. It seemed rather brave of a colleague to ask how life after Liverpool was suiting him.