Outgoing Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp had a final chance to say goodbye to the club's loyal fans at a farewell party before jetting out of the city on Wednesday
Jurgen Klopp has explained his decision to leave Liverpool, claiming he no longer felt at his best and the club didn't need a "passenger".
Klopp bid an emotional farewell to fans, packed inside the Bank Arena by the river Mersey, before flying out of the city with wife Ulla Sandrock. The German flew back to the United Kingdom for the one-off night, with the couple seen boarding a jet at a Liverpool airport less than 24 hours later.
Before jetting off, he told emotional supporters it was time to go because he felt jaded. He says he could not manage Liverpool on “90 per cent” and that he did not want to be “a passenger” carried along by his coaching team.
“I know that a lot of people don’t believe when I say I’m running out of energy,” he told the 11,000 audience. “I don’t in private life and it’s not that I can’t get up in the morning.
“When I talk about running out of energy, how I understand it, I know you all work hard, and much harder than me, but the difference is that I get watched by the public all the time, which makes it a bit annoying from time to time.
“The main thing is that in my job you cannot do it on 90 per cent. Other jobs you get through it for a week or two. But if you’re the boss, the manager of a club like Liverpool FC, you have to be on top of your game and I feel I’m not any more.
“I cannot be here as a passenger. Nobody needs a passenger and I’m not doing the job any more.”
Klopp joked he has helped his successor Arne Slot, who takes over on Saturday, by not winning everything in his final season. “When you’re responsible for a club like this, you have to make sensible decisions,” he said. “Was it the right one?
“For me, it was the right one, for the club the right one. We wanted to play the best possible season. In the end it was a good season, not a perfect season. It’s a basis and we helped the new manager by not winning everything so he can improve it!”
Klopp praised Slot, who arrives on Merseyside, having won the Dutch title and Cup in the last two seasons with Feyenoord, and revealed he has spoken to the Dutchman and his coaching team. “He’s a good guy,” he said. “It was a very good talk. I spoke pretty much with everybody of the new leadership team and he’s a good manager, a really good manager.”
Klopp, 56, leaves after nine years at Anfield and seven major trophies. He might have won more and he lost three European finals and was twice edged out by Manchester City for the Premier League title.
He claims the unbreakable bond he formed with supporters cannot simply be measured in silverware and that Liverpool will never be about money. “I know it’s all about success, but the relationship we created is independent of trophies,” he said.
“It’s based on real trust, togetherness, the experience we had together, things we went through together. I learnt that so early in my life as a manager, not getting promoted for a point. Then a year later, not getting promoted for a goal.
“You can try absolutely everything and get nothing for it. But if you don’t try, you will definitely get nothing, so we kept trying and from time to time, things came together. It clicked and we won things. We were in three Champions League finals, it’s absolutely ridiculous.
“Can you imagine LFC as the club with endless money? Spend what you want. Kylian Mbappé comes here, Bellingham comes here, Haaland comes here. It doesn’t fit. It’s not us. We won what we won and we did it the Liverpool way.”
Klopp also joked Sir Kenny Dalglish was his friend from his first day at Liverpool - but that it took him three years to realise this because of his Glaswegian accent.
Klopp says Dalglish has always been his staunch supporter and that the Liverpool legend is one of life’s good guys.
“Speaking about Kenny, years and years ago, in 2006 at the World Cup, I was a very, very young manager in Germany and I met Franz Beckenbauer and Pele,” he said.
“These two guys were the best people you could meet, the most humble, the most nice. We met and they treated me outstandingly.
“They taught me that whatever happens to you in life, you don’t have to change. “You are either a good guy or a d******d.
“Then I came here and met Kenny and Kenny is exactly that category. He treated me from the first day as his friend. It just took me three years to understand it!
“He’s just a wonderful, wonderful person.”
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