Jurgen Klopp LIVE: Liverpool manager announces departure sparking succession debate

The shock news that Jurgen Klopp will step down as Liverpool manager at the end of the season leaves the Anfield club seeking a successor for the German.

Klopp’s nine-year tenure in charge has seen him transform Liverpool into consistent title challengers, guiding them to Premier League and Champions League triumphs. Their 2019/20 domestic triumph was a first league title for 30 years.

Filling Klopp’s shoes will be a tough task, but there a number of intriguing candidates to succeed him. Assistant Pep Lijnders, thought by some to be a successor in waiting, has also confirmed that he will be leaving the club to pursue his own managerial ambitions.

Here are some of the names who could be in the frame to replace Klopp…

As well as the trophies mentioned in that last post, Liverpool are very much in the Premier League title race this season, and this week they sealed a spot in the Carabao Cup final – where Chelsea await.

The Reds remain in the Europa League, too.

In fact, in Klopp’s first season at Anfield, he guided the team to the final of the Europa League and Carabao Cup, only to lose both matches.

His other runners-up finishes with Liverpool include the Champions League in 2018 (a year before the German finally got his hands on the trophy) and in 2022. Both defeats came by Real Madrid.

Liverpool have also finished second in the Premier League twice under Klopp, coming so close on both occasions – losing by one point both times.

Klopp joined Liverpool in October 2015, replacing Brendan Rodgers, having left Borussia Dortmund a few months earlier.

After steadily building his own squad, his first trophy with the Reds came in 2019, when they won the Champions League with a victory over Tottenham. Later that year, Klopp guided Liverpool to the Super Cup and Club World Cup.

A season later, the German helped to end the club’s 30-year wait for a Premier League title.

In 2021/2022, Klopp and Liverpool achieved a domestic-cup double, beating Chelsea on penalties in both the FA and Carabao Cup finals.

Later that year, they also won the Community Shield.

Our very own Chief Football Writer, Miguel Delaney, has summed it up pretty well:

More from Klopp, as the 56-year-old explains his decision to leave Liverpool:

“I told the club already in November. I have to explain a little bit that maybe the job I do people see from the outside, I’m on the touchline and in training sessions and stuff like this, but the majority of all the things happen around these kind of things.

“That means a season starts and you plan pretty much the next season already. When we sat there together talking about potential signings, the next summer camp and can we go wherever, the thought came up, ‘I am not sure I am here then anymore,’ and I was surprised myself by that.

Well, well, well then… Where to start?

Jurgen Klopp has explained his decision to leave Liverpool at the end of the season, saying:

“It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.”

When pressed on those comments, the German said: “I am OK. I am healthy, as much as you can [be] at my age. Little bits and bobs, stuff like that, but nothing anybody has to be concerned about, so that’s absolutely fine.”

Liverpool have announced that Jurgen Klopp is to resign as manager and depart the club at the end of the 2023/24 campaign.

The German boss arrived at Anfield in 2015 and has reestablished the club as a domestic and European force, reaching three Champions League finals since then – winning one – as well as winning the Premier League title in 2020.

His departure is all the more unexpected as he embarked on a rebuild of the playing squad over the summer, with Liverpool currently sat top of the league table, into the Carabao Cup final and potentially on course for a four-trophy tilt as they continue in the Europa League and FA Cup as well.