‘Stay calm’: Jürgen Klopp insists Liverpool team is not about to break up
Jürgen Klopp has said Liverpool fans should “stay calm” because his team will not break up this summer and key contract issues can be resolved now there is clarity over his future.
The manager dismissed concerns that his decision to leave Liverpool at the end of the season could spark a player exodus. The denial follows Virgil van Dijk’s admission that he is unsure whether he will be part of the post-Klopp era, with the captain in the final 18 months of his contract and awaiting the club’s next step.
Klopp blamed media questions for the uncertainty around Van Dijk, while admitting players will want answers on the club’s direction. But he is adamant the team he has rebuilt into Premier
League title contenders will not rupture as a result of his exit.
“Just to shut the story down, I will say yes [Van Dijk will stay],” he said. “It’s just because somebody asked Virgil and we have made it a case. Virg is a grown man with a family, four kids. He will decide about his future, nothing to do with me or whatever. He loves this club and is so happy to be here. But when the contract is ending you start thinking. That’s all.
“Virg didn’t go out and say: ‘By the way, what I want to say is …’ It is always about the questions and we always need to answer these kind of things. This club is stable, 100%, and everything will be fine, I am 100% sure, and the rest we have to get through this. All people, I would recommend to stay calm in this department, massively.”
Van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent
Alexander-Arnold enter the final 12 months of their contracts this summer. Klopp believes it would have been wrong to negotiate extensions when the players had no idea until Friday that he would not be in charge next season. Now his departure has been confirmed, Klopp expects progress on new deals to be made swiftly.
“The club knew about my departure for a while [since November] and the club could have used the time and tied the players down,” he said. “And then I say: ‘By the way, I’m not here any more,’ and they would be: ‘What? No one told us that.’ You cannot work like that, especially not with the relationship we have.
“There is enough time to do every thing. These players love to be here, don’t forget that. It is not that they have one foot out [of the door]. They want to know a little bit of perspective but that is there and it will happen, especially behind the scenes. Everything is fine. Things, especially important things, need time. Don’t worry. It is all fine. The boys love this place. I know that for a fact.
“Some players left us when I was still here, not happy with the offer or whatever. Nothing has changed. The club has to work on solutions in a few departments, but this is happening since November already.”
Liverpool host Chelsea on Wednesday and Klopp has clarified comments that were interpreted as a dig at Moisés Caicedo and Roméo Lavia after the Anfield club missed out on the visitors’ midfield duo last summer.
Outlining his midfield rebuilding strategy, he said: “We were interested in [Jude] Bellingham but realised it would not happen. The whole market for No 6s went up. Two No 6s left our club. We thought we could maybe do Caicedo. We’d already done [Alexis] Mac Allister before. So we went in but he [Caicedo] had an emotional agreement already with Chelsea and Pochettino.
“Lavia had his own reasons. Then we found our top solution. We found Wataru [Endo]. All the time in our mind we had Stefan [Bajcetic]. It was not clear at that moment he was so badly injured he could not feature at all. We already knew Macca could play the position. Dom [Szoboszlai] was always on my radar. If one of the £100m [signings] had worked there’s no chance to do another. That’s what I meant when I said we are so lucky. Everything in the ‘if not’ scenario worked out.”