It is too easy to forget Liverpool’s standing when Klopp arrived in 2015. Never mind winning the Champions League, the club had barely featured in it for a while. We had finished outside of the top five in all but one of the six seasons preceding Klopp’s appointment.
There was a moment when it seemed the days of Liverpool competing with Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United were gone forever because all of them were able to invest more on players and salaries than Klopp.
The fact that Klopp was able to challenge for the top honours so consistently is what places him alongside Pep Guardiola as the best manager in the world.
When he leaves, presumably having led Liverpool back into the elite competition and hopefully celebrating more trophies, he will have re-established the club as one of Europe’s biggest off the pitch as well as on it, last year being the only anomaly in an otherwise extraordinary reign.
It is difficult to shake off the idea that those unhappy 12 months have led us to this point. We like to think of these legendary managers as superhuman. They are not. It must have sapped him of his energy to the point where he can feel the tank emptying.
There were times after some poor Liverpool performances last season when I wondered how much longer Klopp would go on – if he had the motivation to start again and rebuild a new team, infusing his ideas on the next generation.
The team’s form since the start of this season removed those concerns. That makes the timing now so shocking. Having put the foundations in place, why hand it over to someone else, especially a coach who may have a different vision or be unable to forge the same strong personal relationships with the leaders in the squad? It is a monumental decision to let go now.
The rest of the season will be highly emotional. Rather than immediate disruption, my instinct is that the team and club will be carried towards its goals on a wave of passion. The atmosphere at Anfield in the title run-in was already guaranteed to be electric. Can you imagine what it will be like now? Everyone will be wanting to savour every minute of Klopp as Liverpool manager, understanding that they are seeing the final acts of an era that will be talked about forever. He can go out with a bang by winning a second league title.
My concern is longer-term because, just like Dalglish and Shankly, Klopp will leave such a vacuum. At the moment, Klopp is Liverpool. Nobody in world football thinks of one without the other.
Finding the right man to lead Liverpool is as tough as it gets at any time. Replacing Klopp? All the best with that.
Fenway Sports Group must embark on their search knowing that all his backroom staff are leaving with him, and the German sporting director Jorg Schmadtke will be departing soon too. That is too much of a radical overhaul in a short period.
FSG also know that the requirements of a Liverpool manager are unique. Klopp is more than a coach.
At most clubs, the managers are passing through. If you ask supporters if they would prefer to keep their coach or star players, they’re more likely to say the players. Ask Liverpool fans if they’d rather Klopp was staying and the club was selling Mohamed Salah, and they would unanimously thank the footballer and wish him well in the future.
Like Shankly and Dalglish, Klopp had that instant rapport with the Merseyside public. His core social values chime with them as much as his footballing philosophy. I’m not sure there is any club in world football where the manager’s personality – and even his political leanings – are considered fundamental as to whether they will be accepted by supporters.
Klopp never had to learn how to connect with the Kop. It was like he was born to be the Liverpool manager.
That’s one of the reasons why Xabi Alonso is already being considered the natural heir. From day one, it was like Xabi was born to be a Liverpool player. As he is my former team-mate, it is no surprise that so many are clamouring for him to be appointed. I would love Xabi to get the chance.