No wonder Jurgen seems worn out. Management is harder than ever. You don’t sleep. It is all-consuming

WHAT has surprised me most about Jurgen Klopp announcing he will leave Liverpool is the timing.

Why walk away when you have rebuilt such a fabulous team, who look like they will compete for major honours for the foreseeable future?

Maybe he was worried about the news leaking out, because all of his staff are going with him and a lot of people would have known. Or, having watched his interview, I think it’s more to do with taking a weight off his shoulders and wanting to get back to some sort of normality and enjoying family life once more.

Either way, I was completely taken aback when I heard. Yes, he has looked tired and weary at times, but that’s the job. It does take its toll. But at no point have I doubted his hunger. His attitude still strikes me as one of: ‘Bring it on!’

He has been, and still is, the perfect manager for Liverpool because of his passion and confrontational style. The supporters love that. He fights his club’s corner, and I don’t see that as having changed.

But my surprise is more because of the job he has decided to leave behind. Whoever inherits the position is walking into a wonderful situation. You look at the age and quality of that team, you might not have to buy a player for the next two years. Normally you walk into a club and the roof is caving in.

Jurgen has built a second team on the back of the Premier League and Champions League winners and this one can lift those trophies, too. They are top of the league and, I’ve said this for many months, whoever finishes above Liverpool will win the title. Provided they don’t lose one of Alisson, Virgil van Dijk or Mohamed Salah for a lengthy period, I still think they’ll be the team to beat. Everything is going so well.

So, why make this announcement in January? That is what I keep coming back to in my mind. I certainly don’t buy the idea of it being used as a way of galvanising everyone during the second half of the season. I don’t think Liverpool can pull any more in the same direction than they are now.

I liken it to 1983, when Bob Paisley retired after announcing the news early. It was the same scenario — a legendary manager letting it be known he was going. Did it make us try any harder? No! I would take that as an insult if someone said you’d be trying harder now.

Where will this leave Jurgen in the list of Liverpool’s great managers? Most people would pick Bill Shankly at No 1. He started it all with his ideas and vision of where the game was heading. He got Liverpool going and Bob came in and took it to another level with winning trophies. I’d say Jurgen was at No 3.

He has been transformative, especially when you consider Liverpool’s spending compared to their rivals. Their net spend in his nine years is £254million. Manchester United’s is £888m, Chelsea £835m, Arsenal £696m, Manchester City £692m, and the nearest is Tottenham at £484m. Player recruitment has been fabulous and Jurgen would have had the final say on all of that.

He has turned the club around and, this year, they have come back from a difficult last season. That is why I thought the fire still burned and this was the start of something, not the end.

But maybe it is his commitment that has made him feel so worn out. The job is all-consuming. You don’t sleep at night. You walk through the door in the morning and you’re always confronted by some issue or other. There is no let-up. It can cause you to neglect, to a degree, the most important thing in your life, which is your wife and family. That is my instinct, that he wants to spend more time with them, free from the pressures of the job.

THESE guys earn every penny they get today. Managing players is harder than ever, given the independence they have and the ‘advisers’ around them. At every club, other than Jurgen and Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, the tail is wagging the dog and the players are more powerful than the manager. But at Liverpool, Jurgen has the power, and that is what sets him apart.

Even if he takes five years away now, he’ll still be getting offers. Will he want to come back?

I remember being in a taxi with the great Johnny Giles when I was working for RTÉ. He said to me: ‘Will you go back into management?’ I told him I wasn’t sure. He said: ‘Let me tell you what will happen. When you’re out of it a year, you’ll wonder why you ever did the job in the first place!’ He was right. When you step away from it, it changes you as a human being and changes your relationship with those close to you.

Going forward for Jurgen, and if he decides to come back, I think there are only three clubs for him — Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Barcelona, depending on their financial state. And then there is international football that might be appealing, because it has fewer demands. As for Liverpool, he will leave behind enormous shoes for the next man to fill.

But he is also leaving behind a dream job, and that is why it must have been a super difficult decision for him to come to.