Jurgen Klopp broke Liverpool hearts when he announced his decision to retire from football coaching before Arne Slot stepped in to replace him.
The German completely reshaped Liverpool FC and it’s only thanks to his incredible stewardship that the Reds have been able to continue in his absence almost as if nothing has changed.
Slot has won the Premier League in his first season and while it would be unfair to say he did not earn this title triumph, he will readily admit that Klopp’s work before him paved the way.
Klopp was much more than just a football coach – he understood Liverpool as a club like no other. His relationship with the city was unlike any manager I’ve seen in my short 28 years.
We will never see Klopp back in the Premier League; that much is obvious but he may well return to management at some point with rumours floating around that he could do so with Real Madrid.
This would be a shock given he recently took the post of Head of Global Soccer at Red Bull.
Jurgen Klopp tipped to take Real Madrid job after Liverpool won the Premier League
Speaking on the Peter Crouch Podcast, the man himself was in discussion with co-hosts Chris Stark and Steve Sidwell about Klopp’s future and what a return to management would mean.
On the links with Real Madrid, Stark said: “Maybe what he wanted to do was initially ease the pain and say: ‘Look, I’m not going anywhere, I’m not going do anything [take another managerial job] like that so don’t don’t worry about all that.’
“And then Liverpool have gone and done fantastic and maybe he’s not like upset. He’s there nodding his head [in approval] going: ‘they are okay now, they are fine. They don’t need me.’
“So you can move on [to another club] a bit quicker than expected.”
Is Klopp hurting at seeing Liverpool move on without him?
Crouch continued the discussion by suggesting that Klopp will be hurting in some way at seeing the club he spent so long with succeeding so soon after he left.
The former Liverpool striker said: “It must hurt him a little bit I know that obviously publicly he won’t say that but it must it must seeing Arne Slot and the rest all line up in front of the Kop after winning the league and he must be like, ‘that’s my team’. I don’t care who you are, that hurts. You know like you feel ‘I should be there’.”
I don’t think Kloppo holds any negative feelings towards the Reds.
His Instagram post after the Reds lifted the title says as much. He accompanied the above picture with the words: “Super grateful for the past, super, super happy about the present. Extremely positive about the future! Congratulations – YNWA. Thank You Luv.”
