Heskey’s fellow former Liverpool striker, Stan Collymore, is another that doubts a deal for Klopp will be done in 2026. He has previously told GOAL of what would need to happen in order for a reunion to take place: “Unless it was a case of, in the summer, Jurgen Klopp says ‘I’m coming back to football and Liverpool is the only club for me’ - which would undoubtedly prick the ears of the Liverpool board. If he said ‘I’m coming back but I want a new challenge’, I don’t think the Liverpool hierarchy would go chasing for him. I think they would give Arne Slot the opportunity to be able to get it right, because he has won the league in his first season.”
While Heskey and Collymore are not convinced by the talk of an emotional return for Klopp, another ex-Red - cult hero Gary McAllister - has told GOAL: “You can never say never on things like that. When I watched him when he was managing Dortmund, the rapport with the Yellow Wall and how it's a big industrial city, Dortmund, and he was just custom made for that type of job - the city he was in, the fans he was working for, and the fans he was trying to please. Then you roll the years forward and he comes to Liverpool and again, it's the perfect storm. Again, for me, you've got a charismatic leader, somebody with a very massive personality, feels the same way as the Kop. Again, very similar to the Yellow Wall at Dortmund.
“For me, it's always very difficult to go back to somewhere where you’ve been unbelievably successful. But you can never say never. It's a crazy game and it's getting crazier as we speak. But for me, I think the game in general misses Jurgen Klopp.
“He's obviously got the ability to spend more time with family and stuff, because you know how demanding management is. So the job that he's in at the moment, I'm assuming it gives him more time to be with family. But people who are involved in football just love being on the grass at a training ground. I'd like to see him back wherever it is, because I think the game in general has missed him.”