Jurgen Klopp said he will not help Liverpool identify his successor at Anfield after confirming his plans to step down as manager at the end of this season.
Klopp (56 years old) signed a four-year contract extension in 2022 that would have tied him to the club until the end of the 2025-2026 season, but after taking charge of the team in October 2015, the former Borussia Dortmund coach announced his decision. The resignation was because he no longer had the energy to do this job.
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Marcotti: Klopp will leave Liverpool this summer. What now?
Speaking at a press conference at Liverpool’s training ground on Friday after revealing his decision to resign hours earlier, Klopp said there was nothing between now and the end of the season that might cause him to reconsider his decision to leave.
But despite his success in transforming Liverpool during his eight-year coaching spell, which included winning the Premier League and Champions League, Klopp said he would have no input into the club’s search for a new coach.
“No, why should I?” Klopp said. “The last thing they need is the advice of the old man who comes out and says, ‘By the way, make sure you bring it.’”
“I certainly won’t. You know, I have an opinion on most things, and you won’t believe I haven’t said it all yet, and I have no problem with that.”
“I wish the future of this club the very, very best, and even now I’m still here and I can help them achieve the best they can be.
“In this world, you have a few, in football especially, a few faces and most of the time it’s the club manager and people like that. [CEO Billy Hogan] Or others who do great work that you don’t see very often. This is how you live this business.
“It looks like I’m doing all the work but I’m not, I can’t. That means that everything we’ve built in the last 8 and a half years has been an incredibly strong structure behind the scenes, so everything is moving in the right direction. That’s the good thing.” News, this is one of the reasons I’m leaving.
“My responsibility was so great that my idea was always to put everything in place to help with everything, and for this club to become stronger and stronger, and we did it not to perfection but to the best of our ability.”
He added: “A lot of people here work with only one idea: to find the perfect solution for Liverpool, and I am sure that will happen.”
With Liverpool following up on Klopp’s resignation by announcing that sporting director Jörg Schmadtke will also leave his post at the end of the January transfer window, the search for a new manager will be led by Hogan and the club’s owners, Fenway Sports Group.
Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso, the former Liverpool midfielder, has emerged as a strong contender after leading the German team to the top of the Bundesliga this season, but Hogan said that the club is now embarking on the search for a technical director away from the public eye. No timetable has been set for announcing the date.
“From our point of view, I don’t want to set expectations,” Hogan said. “The way we operate as a football club is to make sure we look at all the information and all the data, we’ve done our due diligence and then we make a decision and we have an announcement at that time.
“I can’t commit to a timetable on that. It will continue in the background and we will make sure we do everything we can to make sure we make the right decision for the future of this football club.
“This is the way we have always worked and will do it through this process and at the same time it will not be a distraction.
“It’s about making sure this season continues and the team continues to perform and, as I said, when we have something to say, we will have something to say at that stage.”
However, Hogan admitted Klopp’s decision – with Klopp informing the club of his plans in November – came as a shock.
“Yes, we were talking about that earlier,” Hogan said. “I had a conversation with my son who said, ‘I thought he was going to work forever!’ So I can understand the impact and the shock,” he said.
“We’re all in a position where we want to get back playing and winning football games, but in terms of his impact, he’s been massive and as a teammate, the last eight years have been amazing and as a fan, equally so.
“So hopefully that will continue, we have goals in front of us and that is where our focus will be.”
Klopp said he wants to enjoy a “normal life” when he steps down at the end of the season, and insisted he will not change his mind about his decision to resign.
When told that Sir Alex Ferguson had reversed his decision to retire as Manchester United manager at the end of the 2001-02 season – Ferguson eventually retired in 2013 at the age of 71 – Klopp ruled out a similar reversal. .
“No. Did Alex Ferguson do that?” Klopp said. “No nothing [will make me change my mind]. I respect Alex a lot and I don’t know what drove him to do this. I’ve thought a lot about it, and because of our relationship – my relationship with the club – the situation is always clear.
“I want everything this season and I won’t change my mind, and if we don’t win anything I won’t change my mind. It’s a decision I made regardless of any kind of result.
“The big thing is the potential of the team. I really see it as a really good foundation, nothing more, we’re not better than other teams or anything, but we have a good foundation to work with and that’s really important. That’s why it’s a good moment to give it to someone else.”
“This team is ready for the future. When I said Liverpool 2.0, obviously that did not include me for the next 10 years but the team is there, the foundation is there.”
“Whoever comes can’t give anyone a guarantee of winning titles, but it can give a good opportunity to play really good football. That’s good.
“They will have a great coach here, and there will be good football. What we have all learned and improved and done in the last few years, going from doubters to believers and staying true to the difficult moments, if we maintain all of that, that is the solution.” A wonderful future ahead.
“That’s all I want and I don’t want to be the passenger that derails this process.”
