It’s looking like it might be the ultimate managerial merry-go-round in the summer. Jürgen Klopp moved first by announcing he will be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season.
There is an understandable nervousness around Anfield about how he will be replaced. But the bottom line is that FSG will more or less have their pick of candidates, with Klopp’s endeavors helping to ensure that the Liverpool vacancy is now one of the biggest in the world — even bigger than it was when he joined, with a sleeping giant now very much awake again.
Barcelona is having a little snooze of its own, but it certainly also falls into that category, and Xavi added to the summer intrigue by announcing that he, too, will be stepping down at the conclusion of the campaign. This comes in very different circumstances to Klopp, with the Catalans struggling on the pitch.
There have even been whispers about Mikel Arteta’s position at Arsenal, although Sky Sports understands there are ‘no plans’ for the Spaniard to depart. It seems inconceivable that Liverpool would covet him, but it remains to be seen if an approach from Barcelona could turn his head.
But there has been no indication as yet that Barcelona wants Arteta. In fact, it appears to be exploring the most obvious move first, inquiring about the possibility of getting Klopp.
President Joan Laporta is said to have admired Klopp for a long time. Sport claimed even before Xavi’s announcement that the departing Liverpool boss was likely to be on the Barcelona radar.
Yet Klopp has already given his answer. While the timing of his Liverpool departure might seem perfect from a Catalan perspective, it will not be so simple.
“I will not manage a club or a country at least for a year, that’s not possible,” Klopp told the Liverpool website upon announcing that he planned to leave. “I cannot do that and I don’t want to. That’s all.”
It’s a statement that leaves no room for doubt or interpretation. Klopp will not be diving straight back into management when he finishes at Liverpool, so if Barcelona wants to have any chance of getting him, it will need to wait.
And unless things change pretty radically at the Nou Camp, it doesn’t seem especially likely that the job will ever appeal to Klopp. Like Liverpool, it obviously has that big-name appeal, but the reality is that the two clubs could hardly be more different in how they are run.
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Klopp is the first to acknowledge that his success at Liverpool has been enabled by great people around him. It’s only right and proper that the German will be remembered above all others in the history books for this successful spell, but he has been empowered to achieve greatness by a fundamentally sound club structure.
He has been furnished with transfer hit after transfer hit — of course, it’s then been over to him to unlock the potential in these players, but a steady stream of recruitment that delivered Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Alisson and Fabinho in the space of a year was always going to be conducive to success. Michael Edwards and the FSG data boffins earned a best-in-class reputation.
Moreover, Klopp has benefited from unwavering support from above. The Liverpool fans and boardroom alike have been on board with the long-term project from day one, giving the manager space to build a tactical and mental culture.
There’s little indication he would get any of that at Barcelona. Look at the speed with which Xavi has come under pressure, having been hailed as the chosen one. Look at the transfer strategy — scattergun at best, chasing instant success with whatever money can be scrounged from Peter in order to pay Paul.
It’s hard to imagine Klopp being best pleased with a situation where he did not know which of his players would even be registered to play with just days to go before the start of a game. But Xavi has been left in that predicament more than once as Barcelona has pulled lever after lever to try and relieve economic pressures.
This is a man who is leaving Liverpool because he is tired. The Nou Camp won’t help with that; Klopp’s answer to every potential suitor is clear for the time-being, but Barcelona looks a particularly bad fit.
