Image Credits: Imago Images
For Liverpool supporters, seeing familiar faces cross the Premier League divide never feels normal.
Especially when it involves the rivalry years that defined an era. Pep Lijnders spent close to a decade on Merseyside and lived through the tightest title races of the modern game.
Those seasons weren’t just about trophies. They were about margins, pressure, and two clubs pushing each other to extremes.
Now he is on the other side. He joined Manchester City last summer as part of Pep Guardiola’s staff and is set to be on the touchline at Tottenham Hotspur.
It is a move that naturally raised eyebrows, given who he worked with and what Liverpool and City have been to each other.
There was a personal element too.
Lijnders left Liverpool in 2024, had a short spell as head coach at FC Red Bull Salzburg, and returned to England with a new role at a club Liverpool have battled with for years.
With another return to Anfield coming next weekend, this was always going to be more than a normal backroom appointment.
Lijnders has now explained how Jurgen Klopp helped shape the decision.
He said via BBC Sport, “The moment Pep called, and the feeling he gave me about what he wanted to do with the team by bringing me in, the trust he already had before we discussed how it would look, that made the decision much easier,” before admitting: “But you cannot put away 10 years of Liverpool that easily.”
He added, “But I’m really proud to come to a club of this magnitude, so successful over the last 10 years and with a manager that defined football.”
Crucially, he revealed Klopp’s push: “When I spoke with Jurgen he was so clear: ‘If you don’t do it, I will take the assistant job.’”
He repeated it with a grin later: “When I spoke with Jurgen he was so clear – ‘if you don’t do it, I will take the assistant job’.”
On working under Guardiola, Lijnders said: “Intense. He’s brilliant, of course. He has a passion and a game understanding from a different planet in my opinion.”
He expanded on what separates the best, “You always have people who are geniuses in terms of how to prepare a team, but the quality lies in how you touch the heart of the players, how you convince them to play in a certain way.”
He also said, “The moment Pep called, the feeling was straight away really good. It was not a difficult decision.”
Looking ahead to returning to Anfield, he said, “It will be special, maybe more special for my family than me,” but made his stance clear, “But my mindset is to win and to try to beat them.”
Want to get the latest Liverpool news direct to your phone? Join our WhatsApp community by clicking here.