Jurgen Klopp is certain that it is the right option for him to move away from Liverpool this summer after nine years in charge at Anfield.
Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool’s troubles over the last six weeks would have continued next season if he hadn’t decided to stand down as manager this summer.
From being in a position where they were battling on four fronts heading into the FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester United in mid-March, the Carabao Cup winners find themselves out of contention for the FA Cup and Europa League and highly likely to finish the Premier League season in third place.
Although some have blamed Klopp’s sudden departure announcement for the drop in form, the Reds won 10 of the 12 games that followed the bombshell news in January, drawing the other two.
Despite this, Klopp believes that if he had remained in charge, the next season would have been difficult due to his falling energy level.
“The football hasn’t been spectacular in the previous several weeks, and as a result, people are starting to comment that I seem exhausted. “I’m just old,” Klopp told Sky Sports ahead of Sunday’s game against Tottenham.
“I plan to give it my all till the very end. This was always the plan. I was confident that if I hadn’t made that decision now, next year would have been difficult. The prospect of lifting yourself up for another pre-season prompts major decisions.
“For it, you must be really energetic. Eighty percent is not enough. That is the truth. It is too much. It is a 24-hour job. Yes, there are more important things in life, but if you truly care, it is 24/7.
“I did it for a pretty long time and I knew I couldn’t continue to do it at the standard necessary for a club like Liverpool.”
The Reds will appoint Feyenoord manager Arne Slot as Klopp’s replacement in the coming weeks, and the German has expressed a desire to return to Anfield and watch a game from the stands.
“It will be super tough not to be part of it anymore in the way I’m part of it now – because I will stay part of it, I will,” he told reporters.
“I will come and watch games, and if whoever is the next manager doesn’t like having me in the stands, this time, I couldn’t be bothered.”
