Jurgen Klopp reveals Fenway Sports Group reluctantly accepted his decision to step down as Liverpool manager when he told them back in November
11:22, 26 Jan 2024Updated 12:19, 26 Jan 2024
Jurgen Klopp has revealed Fenway Sports Group reluctantly accepted his decision to step down as Liverpool manager when he told them back in November.
Klopp announced he would be stepping away from the job he has performed for nine years at Anfield in a bombshell address on the club's official channels on Friday morning.
And the Reds boss has admitted FSG, who employed the German to succeed Brendan Rodgers in October 2015, were not happy when told the news last year, but have agreed for him to step away from a contract that will still have two years left to run this summer.
LIVE: Jurgen Klopp announces shock decision to leave Liverpool
"They didn’t smash a party!" Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com when asked how FSG reacted. "We developed a really good relationship over the years, but I explained it and they know me now for so long that they know I don’t say these kind of things and leave a little bit of the door open: ‘Come on, try to convince me’ and these kind of things.
"As I said, we’ve known each for so long and that good. That was clear and they accepted, they just accepted it. Nobody was really happy. The few people I have told so far, who I told so far, were not really happy. I am not happy with it, I just know it’s right.
"What are the alternative scenarios? What are they? Usually as a manager you get the sack. You have a bad spell before – five, six, seven weeks – and everybody is relieved when you part ways. I’m not sure what’s the other one… you get ill and you have to stop.
"And unfortunately, or fortunately, I have to do it like that. I don’t like that we have to make that fuss of myself, I don’t consider myself as that important but I know that the outside world sees that slightly different. That’s why we do that.
"Doing a press conference, doing an official announcement is a rare thing to do in that situation; we just want to make sure that everybody who is with us gets informed in the best possible way. But after this I’m completely in the Norwich game [on Sunday].
"I’m completely in the Chelsea game, in the Arsenal game, whatever game is coming up. I’m completely in that. There is no need for any farewell parties now, there is a long season to go. I want to be 100% in it, and I am. I am.
"Nobody has to worry about my mindset. It would be really cool if you just could accept my decision as a difficult one but the right one. That’s it. Because as much as I love everything, I still think it’s the right one – that could show you it is probably the right one.
"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.
"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."
Klopp, who became a grandfather last summer, has been in coaching for nearly a quarter of a century, having started at German club Mainz in 2001, and he detailed why he has opted to move away from the demands of the Anfield hot seat when this campaign concludes in late May.
Klopp added: "[it is] business as usual, with a few sad faces for a few days. In a good moment, to change is obviously something that doesn’t happen too often but if it happens there’s still a chance. Nobody knows what the future will bring, but the basis is so good, this team is so good.
"If you would have asked my younger version 10 years ago to take over this team, I would have run through a brick wall to do that. Unfortunately, I did this job for 24 years and at one time I need to have a look how life is…how life is, actually.
"Because I don’t know. I just don’t know. And that’s what I need to figure out before it’s too late for me, if you want. I have to try that now. And I know, I don’t know exactly when but I signed a new contract not too long ago, and I was over the moon when I did it and it was exactly what I felt in that moment.
"The one thing I didn’t know and I underestimated was the fact that my energy source is not endless, because I never had that issue. And when I realised that then I had to tell people. That’s what I owe you all. I tried to describe it already,
"I had to explain it to Ulla clearly. I tried to explain it with, I’m like a proper sports car – not the best one but a pretty good one, can still drive 160, 170, 180 mph but I’m the only one who sees the tank meter is going down. The outside world doesn’t see that, that’s good, so you go until as long as we have to go, but then you need a break. In this case, you need to go to the petrol station.
"That’s exactly what I know I have to do, but nobody has to worry until the end of this season, I know that I will be fine until then."