Jürgen Klopp sent shockwaves around football by announcing his decision to leave Liverpool at the end of the season on Friday morning.
Klopp arrived at Anfield in 2015 from Borussia Dortmund and he’s had a transformative effect on the club’s fortunes.
The German is widely regarded as one of the best managers in the world and he won his first Champions League in 2019 – Liverpool’s sixth time winning the biggest European trophy.
Klopp emulated that achievement in the following season when he led Liverpool to their first English title in 30 years to consolidate his legendary status.But Klopp has made the difficult decision to leave Liverpool and he explained his decision to supporters in an emotional statement.
He said: ““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.
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 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”. Replacing Klopp will be a massive challenge as he enjoyed incredible success at Liverpool with an impressive points per game record.
But speculation will quickly turn towards his replacement and we’ve assessed five potential candidates.The only barrier to Alonso joining Liverpool next season is whether the young manager wants to depart Leverkusen so soon and if he is holding out on a move to Real Madrid – one of the few clubs that can rival and surpass Liverpool in appeal for the young manager.
The former issue may be resolved should Alonso take Leverkusen to league success in May, but the latter may prove to be a serious obstacle to the Anfield club signing Alonso next season.Considering his years of success as a player at Anfield, it makes perfect sense to line Xabi Alonso up as the natural successor to Klopp at the end of this season. The young head coach has been earning his stripes in the Bundesliga, where he has built a team capable of challenging Bayern Munich for the German top-flight title. Liverpool fans will also be licking their lips at Alonso’s record in European competition, where he was a whisker away from taking Bayer Leverkusen to the Europa League final in his first season at the club.
