27 January 2024 , 09:59
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Jurgen Klopp made the decision to go public with the news of his impending departure from Liverpool, having informed club chiefs of his decision in November.
Klopp made the shocking announcement on Friday, admitting he is "running out of energy" to manage Liverpool and that he intends to take a year away from football before considering his next steps.
And according to a report from the Athletic, it was Klopp who decided a public announcement should be made two months after he made the call to step down. The report states that he was keen to ensure that the players, staff and fans heard the news directly from him and that it did not leak to the media first.
"In an ideal world I wouldn't have said anything to anybody until the end of the season," Klopp explained in his interview with club media. "Win everything and then say goodbye, but that's not possible.
"In the world we are living in, it's not possible to keep things like this secret; it's maybe a surprise that we could keep it [a secret] until now. There are so many things which are influenced by it, especially personal situations.
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"People from my staff need to know early – and especially the club needs to know early and needs to plan. You cannot plan anything and you cannot really start. You can do a lot of stuff with knowing it but not making it public, but the decisive things, a lot of things, you cannot do.
"That means the club needs time. But because of the relationship we have, I have to think about this. Because nobody will sack me, I have to make this decision by myself." It has also been announced that Klopp's assistants Pep Lijnders and Peter Krawietz and coach Vitor Matos will also leave their posts at the end of the season.
Lijnders in particular wants to become a manager next, with Liverpool CEO Billy Hogan saying: "Pep wants to get going in his managerial career and that's something we understood. Anything we can do to support him we will of course do."
Now that the news is public, Liverpool will begin actively searching for Klopp's replacement with the Athletic stating the club have not yet approached any candidates due to concerns it could be leaked prior to Friday's announcement. However, that no longer matters,
The report adds that director of research Will Spearman has been conducting background work on potential candidates for the job and that club plans to appoint a new sporting director to replace Jorg Schmadtke before targeting Klopp's replacement.