When Bayern Munich announced they had sacked Julian Nagelsmann earlier this week, for the briefest moment Liverpool fans could have been forgiven for worrying that the Bavarians would move for Jurgen Klopp.
However, it soon became clear that they would instead go for Thomas Tuchel, with the former Chelsea manager a free agent since his departure from Stamford Bridge last year.
Having taken over at both Mainz and Borussia Dortmund after Klopp, Tuchel’s career has often been linked to the Reds manager. Yet, by joining Bayern, he has taken up a post that has repeatedly eluded his Liverpool counterpart.
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Bayern have repeatedly been linked with Klopp over the past decade, while the Reds boss has previously admitted publicly that he has rejected the German giants’ advances on more than one occasion.
“I could have gone to Bayern [Munich] a few times, I could have won more titles in my life,” he would admit last May ahead of the FA Cup final. “I would say there is a good chance at least of that.
“I didn’t do it. I had a contract here and I never did it. That’s completely fine. The world is not full of winners, the world is full of triers hopefully. And I try and, sometimes, I win with some other people together. I am happy with that.”
Having impressed in his first managerial post with Mainz, Klopp was under consideration for the Bayern job back in 2008. However, the Bavarians would opt for former striker Jurgen Klinsmann instead.
“We once agreed that he would come to Bayern,” Bayern Munich's honorary president Uli Hoeness told ntv. “I spoke to him before Christmas to see if he could imagine coming to Bayern. But then Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had the great idea to sign Jurgen Klinsmann."
“Uli told me that they had decided to go for the other Jurgen,” Klopp would later recall. "I congratulated him, saying that Klinsmann was a good choice and it would work."
His compatriot would ultimately last less than a season. Meanwhile, Klopp would join Borussia Dortmund that summer instead, and would go on to win two Bundesliga titles and a DFB-Pokal at Bayern's expense, before the Bavarian giants bit back.
Defeating Dortmund at Wembley in the 2013 Champions League final, they would then sign Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski in successive seasons as Klopp's great side was slowly broken up. Meanwhile, Mats Hummels made the same move in the summer of 2016, a year after his former manager's own departure.
Klopp had widely been expected to replace Pep Guardiola as Bayern manager in 2016 as the German took a sabbatical from football after leaving Dortmund the year before. However, he was lured back into management by Liverpool in October 2015.
That hasn’t stopped links to Bayern, of course, with Franz Beckenbauer talking up the possibility on more than one occasion both before and after Klopp’s appointment at Anfield.
"Of course I could imagine Klopp as Guardiola's successor," Bayern’s honorary president told Sky Deutschland in April 2015. "When I was president, we often talked about Klopp and believed he would fit very well at Bayern.
"Klopp is definitely an option at Bayern. The question is, how long Guardiola will be in Munich. I hope for a long time, but Klopp would be considered.”
Meanwhile, Klopp would play down such a suggestion after knocking Bayern out of the Champions League on his way to winning the European Cup with Liverpool in 2019.
"Someone told me what Franz said after the game. It doesn't put pressure on me,” he said. “I am blessed that I have known him for 14 years. Knowing him is something quite special.
"We are friends, even if we don't talk a lot, but I am not surprised that he said positive things about me. When he always speaks about me, he speaks positively. It is just like the king knighting a man 'Sir'. There is no bigger football legend in Germany than Franz Beckenbauer. It is great.
"It is a compliment to Liverpool, but Bayern have done most things right in the last 10 or 15 years without making many mistakes. Hopefully in 50 or 60 years, I will be remembered without referring to managing many different clubs. I am happy with the clubs I've had now.
"Liverpool is a really good fit for me. I love it. There are a lot of opportunities to develop an already really good football team. So let's work and try to make the most of it."
Later that year, Klopp would joke that he could take over as Germany and Bayern manager, after frequent speculation linking him with both posts, before suggesting returns to both Dortmund and Liverpool as he plotted out his ‘dream’ managerial career.
"In the order in which I'd like to do it: I want to coach the German national team, then Bayern Munich, then back to Dortmund and then Liverpool for life," he joked in a video message for SPORT BILD.
"I really have no idea. I hope for now that the next two or three years will continue in the same way, and then I'll decide. Everything is possible; maybe I'll just stop completely."
Yet despite all this flirting between Bayern and Klopp, the Liverpool manager has previously suggested that one post-match interview has cost him any chance of ever taking over his former foes.
After the Reds had beaten Manchester City 3-0 at Anfield in March 2016, on a night where Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur also lost, he was asked what Liverpool had their sights on after closing the door on the Champions League places.
“I didn't know about the other results in this moment. I heard Bayern lost,” he said before launching into an infectious booming laugh. “But I think that is not too important for us!"
Bayern, managed by Guardiola, had lost 2-1 at home to his former club Mainz, aiding Dortmund’s only title hopes in the process. But without such context, it appeared he was just taking great joy in his former rivals suffering a defeat.
“I slammed the Bayern door myself,” Klopp admitted to 11Freunde later that year. “It was the joy for Mainz’s success. But the video looks like pure malicious joy. That is not repairable.”
Under contract at Anfield until 2026, even considering Liverpool’s current struggles, there is no suggestion of the German leaving the Reds. And even the day comes that that dreaded exit plays out, there is no guarantee he would ever even take over at Bayern in the future.
Tuchel’s swift appointment by the Bavarians stopped any chance of such speculation before it could even arise. As a result, the former Chelsea boss is now the man tasked with helping Sadio Mane to rediscover his best form following his own move from Anfield last summer.
The prospect of Klopp joining his former player at Munich anytime soon seems very unlikely. With his two-time successor Tuchel taking charge of his first Bayern training session today, the Bavarians are now at the start of another cycle. Meanwhile, having won everything there is to win at Anfield, the lure of Germany's biggest club is perhaps not as big as it once was prior to moving to England.
Since turning down Klopp in 2008, Bayern have, including caretakers, had 14 different managers. Meanwhile, Tuchel is their seventh permanent boss since his compatriot joined the Reds in October 2015. Munich bosses have surely regretted such a decision countless times over the past 15 years, especially with Liverpool manager currently eight years into the longest and most successful reign of his career.
Whenever there is any possibility of a change of manager at Bayern Munich, Klopp’s name will always be mentioned. But, for now at least, that door remains slammed shut.
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