The clues were subtle, almost imperceptible, but had those who know him well enough looked closely enough, then there were hints that Jurgen Klopp’s mindset on his future was changing.
He has been visibly more relaxed in recent weeks, at ease with himself, and with his position as the orchestrator of the greatest attempt so far on the impossible football dream of the quadruple.
He had looked tired, occasionally drained, in the early months of 2022, which is why so many believed - when he said so bluntly and openly his idea was to leave Liverpool in 2024 - that he would stick to that plan.
Yet in recent weeks, his demeanour has changed, his mood and body language lifted. Not only was he comfortable with the insane schedule of playing every game it is possible for a club to play this season…but he appeared to be relishing it. In fact, he is loving it. He loves working with a remarkable group of players, a tight-knit, talented and loyal staff, with owners who respect and admire him, and with a fanbase who not just adore him, but cherish and even worship him.
This is presumably why it was Klopp who approached FSG's Mike Gordon, the man who runs Liverpool, to suggest that he would be open to accepting a new contract after all, despite his reluctance to discuss it when the club had put - and left - the idea on the table. Make no mistake, the owners of Liverpool are desperate for him to stay. They have made no secret of that, and why wouldn’t they? He is one of the all-time great managers, but not just that. He is the perfect 21st century manager.
He possesses all the traditional abilities, a supreme motivator with outstanding player-management skills, an intelligent adaptive coach with a modern understanding of tactics and medicine. And he possesses what most managers don’t in this new age of football, which is the ability to understand complex analysis, digest it into his own tactical and technical thinking, but crucially, to then convey that information in a way his players easily understand.
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Liverpool’s owners, FSG, understand better than most the direction sport is travelling in terms of analytics, and they understand that to have a manager with traditional qualities who is cutting edge in his methods is priceless. This is why they were prepared to pay whatever Klopp wanted to keep him at the club for longer. Not that he is interested in being the highest-paid manager in football, or anything like that. He knows his worth, he will accept payment commensurate with his role, but it has never been about money with him.
It is about the project, it is about his ‘boys’, his team and his club, and his connection with the fans. He has what he always wanted as a football manager at Anfield, and he simply decided that he couldn’t turn his back on it yet. This is a team many seasoned, cynical, pundits are now saying is the greatest in Liverpool’s illustrious history. When Graeme Souness says something like that, it is time to listen.
Klopp has crafted that team, has created it along with his coaching, technical, medical and analytics staff. He may not have won as much as Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Kenny Dalglish - yet - but he is already alongside them. This team is as good as any, as Shankly’s great 1960s side, Paisley’s magnificent team of the early 1980s, Dalglish’s maestros of the late 1980s. They are the three best, and this side is their equal, no doubt.
There is also no doubt this squad is the best in Liverpool history, and that is another reason Klopp has chosen to stay. He has crafted a quite wondrous team, and one that has a new found maturity to add to its sublime quality. Yet beyond that, he is already building the next great team. He has signed young players like Diogo Jota, Ibrahima Konate and Luis Diaz to smoothly transition in alongside his current stars, and his exciting crop of home grown or home-developed talent. He wants to finish that job. He wants to win now and build for the future, so that even when he leaves (perhaps in 2026, but who knows!) the club is left in rude health for his successor, whom you suspect Klopp will want to come from his current staff.
But most of all, he wants to win, of course. This season has refreshed his burning appetite. His plan to leave was always based on the notion of a shelf life, and his idea that he wouldn’t be able to sustain his remarkable energies without a break. Yet they are already guaranteed to play every single game they can this season bar one. And they will go all the way in every single competition they have entered if they avoid defeat, or lose by a single goal in Villarreal next week. That puts what Klopp has done into context. No team has still been chasing the big trophy quadruple at this stage of the season. Not in England. Not in Europe. And he has achieved that, even with one of the greatest teams of all time in Manchester City as a rival.
Why end that prematurely? In the end, he realised he shouldn’t….he couldn’t. This offers some clues about Liverpool over the next four years. Even if their glorious quadruple bid ultimately fails, Klopp believes he has the appetite to win more trophies with Liverpool. And crucially, he believes this current team STILL has the same appetite too. Which could see Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, and even Roberto Firmino all sign new contracts in the summer. Perhaps Naby Keita and James Milner too, because the manager believes he has the perfect balance at present.
He also believes that with the bigger, better squad he has created with a frightening amount of depth that rivals even City’s immense breadth of talent, his stars can play on well into their 30s. Interestingly, the likes of Joel Matip and Keita are proof of that, at very different ages. Both have been prone to injury in the hectic, intense schedule of the Premier League. Yet this season, with the ability to rotate them regularly, both have enjoyed by far their best run without injury. With the supreme athleticism of his front three, the same could apply. Klopp has said he can see all of them playing until their mid-30s and beyond, and that is surely a factor in his decision, especially with Jota and Diaz there to supplement and challenge them. He will also get the chance to sign young players to enhance his squad, and develop it for the future too, with the likes of Jude Bellingham and Aurelian Tchouaméni very much on the radar. It is a mouth-watering prospect, before you even consider that some huge names will want to join this project.
Everything told Klopp that this is the perfect environment for him, the perfect squad, the perfect conditions, and the perfect home. And in the end he realised he couldn’t turn his back on that yet. Not with more still to achieve. There is one other factor to consider in his decision too. Liverpool are far from having the perfect owners, given they are a group of corporate capitalist Americans with no connection to the city or fans, and with the ultimate aim of making as much money as possible from their investment in the ‘sports business’.
Yet by comparison to the oligarchs, nation-states with dubious human rights records, and vulture capitalists who inhabit the top of the sport, they are relatively benign businessmen, who run a tight ship and don’t spend vast sums of their own cash simply to sportswash their regimes. To be able to not only compete against these clubs, but actually beat them, to show it is possible to do it with a self-sufficient football business which he ensures personally is not just about corporate greed (albeit a still inherently globally massive and therefore wealthy club), appeals to him. Klopp is a Christian, and he is a socialist in the Shankly sense of the word. He believes in people. He believes in THE people. He believes in the goodness of people, and he believes in making them happy, as Liverpool’s greatest manager did. Right now he has the chance to do that without selling his soul, and that is something he realises he can not turn his back on anytime soon.
