The eagle-eyed among us wondered why Liverpool FC had cleared all media on Friday, strangely scheduling Jurgen Klopp’s pre-Norwich press conference for Thursday and even pushing LFC Women’s manager Matt Beard’s press conference to Saturday.
It seemed, though, that there was nothing to it, just a quirky scheduling call.
Therefore, when the announcement arrived at 10.30am, no media had previously reported anything remotely along the lines of Jurgen Klopp even considering leaving Liverpool early.
It was a bombshell like no other in the modern era at Anfield. News of this magnitude that even comes close is Bill Shankly’s resignation in 1974, and Kenny Dalglish’s in 1991. It was a ‘you know where you were’ moment.
That Klopp had told the club’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, in November of his decision to leave at the end of the 2023/24 season, in this media age and nobody knew anything until Friday is quite remarkable. Therefore, a press conference on the Friday afternoon wasn’t quite as busy as the one for Klopp’s arrival, which was held in Anfield’s Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand in order to satisfy the mass media throng upon the German’s arrival.
That day in 2015, Klopp posed for photos on the pitch in front of a half-built new Main Stand - it was a metaphor for the building job that was needed by the German. Now, when he leaves this May, he will do so with the Main Stand completed and the Anfield Road Stand taking Anfield’s capacity to 61,000. It is another metaphor for how his successor will find the club.
“You will get a top manager here,” insisted Klopp at his press conference at the Reds’ training ground on Friday afternoon - another of the huge infrastructure improvements he has been involved in in the last eight years.
“It looks like I do all the work, I don’t. What we built in the last eight and half years is an incredibly strong structure behind the scenes.”
Klopp has frequently discussed wanting to leave the club in a better place than when he arrived, and that he certainly will be doing. There was, however, another surprise in the announcement, that both his assistants Peter Krawietz and Pepijn Lijnders will be leaving too, along with elite development coach Vitor Matos.
The departure of Lijnders is particularly revealing as otherwise he would have been a leading candidate to replace Klopp, much like the golden/olden days of the boot room era. Instead, Klopp has said that his coaches are all “available” and he will watch with excitement their next steps.
One could comfortably envisage Lijnders taking Matos as an assistant at a club when he takes up a managerial role of his own. The Portuguese duo have been integral to Liverpool’s success, perhaps more than most realise, with Matos’ role highlighted as being the bridge between the academy and first-team but involving far more hands-on with the first-team training sessions.Sessions will often be split with Klopp, Lijnders, Krawietz and Matos taking small groups each. They are a team and that team is being entirely broken up.
Therefore, whoever succeeds Klopp will need to bring their own staff, which isn’t an unusual thing in football but does point to the upheaval at Anfield this summer and the question of continuity.
Klopp, who questioned why he would be involved in the process of recruiting his successor, perhaps unaware of Sir Alex Ferguson’s role in hiring David Moyes at Manchester United - with Klopp finding some time for laughter when he was told about Ferguson once having announced his intention to retire and then changing his mind. Klopp is adamant and unequivocal that that will not be happening here.
Liverpool’s owners, FSG, have had two months already to digest the news. CEO Billy Hogan, of course, was asked about the next four months but merely pointed at the process being one which will be done privately and without a running commentary.
“The way we operate as a football club is to make sure we look at all the information, all the data and then make a decision in time,” said Hogan.
Liverpool, then, will be accessing potential candidates, chief among them being Xabi Alonso.
The former Liverpool midfielder has been tenuously linked with the post at Anfield, with reports and counter-reports over a clause or verbal agreement with his current club, Bayer Leverkusen, that he can join either the Reds or Real Madrid having first emerged around November - the time when Klopp informed FSG. Coincidence or not? Time will tell.
Alonso has said before, in 2018, that managing Liverpool is something he has “dreamt” of. A timely press conference for the Spaniard on Friday saw him field questions after Klopp’s announcement. “What will come next, I don’t know,” he surmised.
That uncertainty is something Klopp and Liverpool will be keen to ensure doesn’t dominate the end of this season.
The one thing that Klopp and his staff must ensure now is that the countdown to his departure doesn’t distract from the club’s pursuit of trophies in four competitions - and instead that it be the fuel that ensures Klopp leaves Liverpool in a celebratory mood and with more silverware to show for his time on Merseyside.
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