“The thought came up, ‘I am not sure I am here then anymore’ and I was surprised myself by that.”
Jurgen Klopp will leave his role as manager of Liverpool at the end of the 2023/24 season. The German revealed the decision has been brewing a while, but it has only come to light, with a good chunk of the season still to play.
Klopp explained, during a wide-ranging and in-house interview with LFC TV, that a thought crossed his mind, last summer, that he might not be around for the 2024/25 season. By the time we had reached November, the 56-year-old had made up his mind. He explained:
“I was surprised myself by that [realisation]. I obviously started thinking about it. It didn’t start [then], but of course last season was kind of a super-difficult season and there were moments when at other clubs probably the decision would have been, ‘Come on, thank you very much for everything but probably we should split here, or end it here.’ That didn’t happen here, obviously.
“For me it was super, super, super-important that I can help to bring this team back onto the rails [this season]. It was all I was thinking about. When I realised pretty early that happened, it’s a really good team with massive potential and a super age group, super characters and all that, then I could start thinking about myself again and that was the outcome. It is not what I want to [do], it is just what I think is 100% right. That’s it.”
The main reason Klopp has given for wanting to step away from a club he led to six trophies, to date, in his time on Merseyside is being fatigued by the demands of the job.
He said that if he was to be offered the chance to manage Liverpool, and was 10 years younger, he would ‘run through a brick wall’ to do so. At 56, having been a manager for 24 years, he needs a break.
“I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I love everything,” he said.
“But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take. It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.
“After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth – and that is the truth. That’s it, pretty much.”
That main reason for leaving Liverpool – running out of energy reserves and not being able to plug in, again and again – will be a surprise to many. This was the ‘Rock n’ Roll’ football manager who brought genen-pressing and pressure football to heady levels.
For others, they will understand that this was a man that emptied himself into the role – at Mainz, Dortmund and Liverpool – for decades, and now needs time to reset and re-focus.
Jurgen Klopp on being 100% in for trophy push
In his advance ‘exit’ interview with the in-house broadcaster, Jurgen Klopp spoke on a couple of occasions about potential disturbances in the news leaking, or not being made clear early in the season.
Pressed on that, he explained, “I had a similar situation at Dortmund. The circumstances are completely different but it is a similar situation, you cannot deny that. It is up to us. After this announcement we will have a press conference and stuff like that. After that, I am 100% in this season.
“We can go through it, I think in an ideal world we have kind of 30 games coming up or something like that. That is, in other countries, a full season. There are so many things to play for and there might be some ideas from the outside to disturb what we are doing, but it is all about us. The way we grew together in the last few years is absolutely exceptional. Absolutely exceptional.
“I always said it, and especially now it is still true, nothing has to happen because of me. Nobody has to make the games now about me – please don’t, if I can ask for that it would be really nice – and we just support each other. I am fully here – I don’t think anybody realised any difference in the last few months. If [they did] then maybe a positive change because I have to say when I made the decision, as hard as it is, it was a relief as well.
“It was like, ‘OK, there is a finishing line’ and not for not being here anymore. If I could stay here in that role I would be over the moon, I just can’t.”
On the future for Liverpool FC, Jurgen Klopp hopes he will leave it, this summer, in a good place. “Nobody knows what the future will bring, but the basis is so good, this team is so good,” he said.
“If you would have asked my younger version 10 years ago to take over this team, I would have run through a brick wall to do that. Unfortunately, I did this job for 24 years and at one time I need to have a look how life is… how life is, actually. Because I don’t know. I just don’t know. And that’s what I need to figure out before it’s too late for me, if you want. I have to try that now.”
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