Liverpool legend Jurgen Klopp rejected Manchester United before he moved to Anfield, and the Old Trafford side is still trying to find the right person to take the club forward
11:57, 05 Jan 2026
Liverpool legend Jurgen Klopp.
Liverpool legend Jurgen Klopp.(Image: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
Liverpool legend Jurgen Klopp already revealed why he turned down Manchester United, with the vacancy at Old Trafford now free again following the departure of Ruben Amorim.
Since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, Manchester United had employed David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik ten Hag. Amorim has now also been fired and will be replaced by U18s coach Darren Fletcher for the time being, with Oliver Glasner among the names linked to take over in the summer.
History could have been very different had Klopp been convinced to take over at Manchester United when Ferguson left. However, he gave a clear answer at the time that he doesn't regret.
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During his appearance on The Diary Of A CEO Podcast in October, Klopp told host Steven Bartlett: "Yeah, I spoke to them. In the year when Sir Alex retired, they spoke to me. Yeah, of course they were interested at one point.
"At that time, I would have been interested. I was young; I had a sensational team at Dortmund. My God, they probably thought, ‘what is he doing there?’
"They tried. It was the wrong time, wrong moment for me. I had a contract at Dortmund, I wouldn’t have left for anybody at that time. They just needed a manager, but the manager they wanted, it was one of a few options I think."
Liverpool legend Jurgen Klopp.
Liverpool legend Jurgen Klopp is now Red Bull's head of global soccer.(Image: Antonio Borga/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
In the book Bring The Noise, it is claimed that Klopp turned Manchester United down because then-CEO Ed Woodward pitched it to the German as "like the adult version of Disneyland".
"Klopp wasn't entirely convinced by that sales pitch — he found it a bit 'unsexy', he told a friend — but he didn't dismiss the proposition out of hand either," it says.
Klopp would later meet up with Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke, with whom he had a close relationship, to confirm he had made up his mind and that he would be turning down Manchester United.
He was later of interest to both Manchester City and Tottenham, to some degree, before he arrived at Anfield and won every trophy possible during a storied tenure.
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Liverpool.com says: Manchester United, just like Chelsea, is in a mess at the moment. Firing the manager means it will go back to square one again, to some extent.
Liverpool has both clubs chasing it down in the Premier League table, with Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge chiefs hoping their moves are enough to catapult them back into the Champions League places.
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It is up to Arne Slot's men to ensure that they do enough to stave them off, no matter how the two sides' form is affected by the managerial changes, with a small buffer at this stage.