Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool exit was one of the most shocking moments in the club’s recent history.
While his contract still had two years left to run, the German decided he had had enough and walked away in the summer of 2024.
Announcing his exit in January, Klopp admitted that he had simply run out of the energy needed to lead a club the size of Liverpool.
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After almost nine years of pouring his heart and soul into the club, it was time for him to go.
Although shocked and deeply saddened by the revelation, Liverpool supporters could not argue with the words of their fearless leader. It hurt so much because of how wonderful a manager – and person – Klopp had been.
Since his exit, Klopp has appeared in public many times, talking over his departure from Anfield. However, journalist James Pearce says he has now uncovered a new nugget of information about what really went on behind the scenes.
Liverpool staff join Jurgen Klopp in a bow in front of the Kop on his final day as manager at Anfield.
Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Jurgen Klopp knew he wanted to leave Liverpool in 2022
It was an almighty shame that Liverpool could not end Klopp’s final season at the club by signing off with the Premier League trophy.
However, after the 58-year-old rebuilt the Liverpool squad in the summer of 2023, he at least left Arne Slot with the tools needed to go on and win it in his first season in charge.
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Part of Klopp’s legacy will always be that he stayed on and left the Reds in a position of strength. He certainly did not have to. Had he left in 2023, for example, Slot would have had a huge rebuild on his hands.
And according to Pearce, Klopp was actually feeling like he wanted to walk away before the end of the 2022/23 campaign. As the journalist told the Walk On podcast, the former Reds boss was feeling the strain as far back as December 2022.
“One of the most interesting things that a number of people told me kind of off the record when I was in the early stages of doing the book,” Pearce said.
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“Sometimes I find in this job that if you can get a trusted source who will speak to you off the record, that can be one of the best sources of detail and information. And yeah, a number of people said to me about, they actually felt that the first signs of Jurgen Klopp feeling the strain was coming up to Christmas in 2022.
“If you remember rightly, Liverpool were at a training camp in Dubai, and the idea was that obviously the Qatar World Cup was on, and as players got knocked out of that tournament, they’d link up with the Liverpool squad ahead of the season restarting.
“And yeah, people said that that was when they first started to sense that everything was not absolutely fine with Jurgen in terms of the demands and the pressures getting to him.”
Klopp’s Liverpool legacy will always be remembered
Jurgen Klopp was no ordinary football manager. If he were, he would have slapped his resignation letter in front of the Liverpool owners in December 2022.
At the very least, most managers would have seen out the season before deciding to call it a day.
What Klopp did instead should be remembered as one of the most selfless acts by a manager in Liverpool history.
Having steered the team to a disappointing 5th-place finish in 2023, Klopp decided that that simply would not do. Departing at that point would have made coming in very difficult for a new manager.
Instead, the former Borussia Dortmund boss revamped the Liverpool squad and led them on one last title-charge. Back in the Champions League and with a group of players ready to win the Premier League, the legacy of Klopp putting his own feelings aside for the good of the club should always be remembered.