Klopp insists Liverpool will be just fine without him
JURGEN KLOPP says the best memories are yet to come at Liverpool and promised to give his all as manager until the end of the season. The German boss shocked the world of football yesterday by announcing he had decided to leave Liverpool at the end of the season, bringing down the curtain on nine trophy-laden years in English football. Klopp informed Liverpool’s owners in November of his intentions and, though Fenway Sports Group’s Mike Gordon tried to persuade him to say, the manager said yesterday: ‘There’s nothing that could happen to change my mind.’ He believes he no longer has the energy or intensity needed and decided to quit on a high. ‘I’ve been doing this for 24 years,’ he said. ‘You invest everything you have. I did that and it was never a problem. ‘But I realised that my resources are not endless. ‘I preferred to give absolutely everything to this season and then have a break or to stop. We are not young rabbits any more and we don’t jump as high as we did. ‘This club, especially with the team we have and all the super things we have, needs on top of that a manager in his top game and top level. I cannot be that any more. I wish this club for the future the very, very best. ‘The best memories are yet to come.’ Klopp revealed that he had cried when he told club staff. There had been murmurs in the summer over a rift between Klopp and FSG but the German manager dismissed any talk of that yesterday. ‘It would be so easy to blame the owners,’ he said. ‘They say, “We would have won more trophies if FSG had spent more”. ‘We built two stands (Main Stand and Anfield Road End) which will last for ever. If we have an earthquake, they will stay there! ‘My job, if you blame anyone for not winning the Champions League more often, blame me. Everybody brought us to that point. ‘I have had six press conferences a week for nine years, I have no problem with (the press) but I can’t wait for a moment when I don’t have to do that! You have to be the best version of yourself, especially for a club like Liverpool. I cannot do it on three wheels. ‘I have never wanted to be a passenger. My managerial skills are based on energy and emotion and that takes all of you and needs all of you. I am who I am and where I am because of how I am. ‘I underestimated it because (I thought) my energy level was endless and now it is not.’ Asked if he could do a U-turn like Alex Ferguson with Manchester United in 2001, Klopp said: ‘Alex Ferguson did that? No, nothing. I respect Alex a lot and I don’t know what drove him. I really thought a lot about it, and because of our relationship — mine with the club — the situation is clear.’ Klopp insists he is very happy with the squad he has re-built (Liverpool 2.0). ‘A big (reason to leave) is the potential of the team. I really see it is a really good basis, not more, we are not better than other teams or whatever, but we have a good basis to work. That’s why it is a good moment to give it to someone else. ‘Whoever comes in cannot give anybody a guarantee to win trophies but can have a good chance to play really good football. They will get a top manager here, there will be good football.’ Asked what he might do after he returns to a more normal life, he said: ‘I don’t know what normal life is! I am not in a mood to recap (the past).’