Pep Lijnders has hinted that he would like to be a future Liverpool manager when explaining his decision to leave the club alongside Jurgen Klopp.
It was announced last week that the German would leave the Reds at the end of the season, with Lijnders, Peter Krawietz, and Vitor Matos all joining Klopp in vacating their positions.
The Dutchman returned to Liverpool as assistant manager to Klopp in June 2018, following a brief stint in charge of NEC Nijmegen. And he has always been open about his desire to pursue a managerial career of his own when his time at Anfield came to an end.
In the past, Lijnders has been tipped as a possible successor to Klopp. But he feels the time is right to leave the club along with the German.
“It’s not easy, leaving such a club,” he said. “But in life I feel always you have to do the right thing and the right thing means that in the summer we said we continue and we go with all we have, we make it ‘the Last Dance’, we make it like a proper ending.
“Not knowing that it would be that season but knowing that the project is coming to an end. I felt that with the back-up of the ownership, signing the right players, we are just going back to basics.
“No negativity: I said it as a joke in pre-season that everybody who is or shows one sign of negativity, I will punch them in the head! Just to make sure that we go and draw a line, we go with a clean sheet.
“That’s always good, that you see it as just one season to go and with the new energy boys, with a few main ones leaving. But that created [a situation] that other boys had to step up.
“We were in the right frame to attack the season and then with time we do well, and it’s really nice that we can make this decision early so we leave the club with a squad who is full of hunger, full of talent, a lot of leadership as well, who can, for the next years, be really successful.”
He continued: “I owe this club everything. They don’t owe me anything, to be honest. It’s 10 years full of dedication. I always said I will finish with Jurgen; the moment I will not assist anyone else, that’s the moment I will go and I will manage.
“That was always the case. So when we spoke, it was clear for me. Okay, then I go and manage, and we end this project together [that] we started. But yeah, it’s not easy.
“My boys, my wife; my boys are two proper Scousers and their whole life they will be. Maybe posh ones! But still! I cannot say thank you enough to everybody involved. I’m grateful. Mike [Gordon] and myself had a good talk later, I’m really grateful for that and that makes me [feel] as well that I can leave the club consciously.”
Meanwhile, Lijnders also shed new light on the surprise news that Matos would be leaving the club, hinting that he intends to make the Portuguese his own assistant manager when he embarks on his next post.
And the Dutchman also admitted that he would love to cross paths again with Liverpool in the future, hinting that while he won’t be Klopp’s successor, he would like to manage the Reds himself should the opportunity arise.
“I hope I can give the same emotions and the same joy to the fans in the future, to the new club,” he told the club. “I really believe that it’s a natural progression, how we led this club for the last years, so that’s really cool and I can’t wait to start.
“But probably in a few months’ time I will sit down with my manager, now is not the time, but then I will see what kind of options do I have, which club really wants [me] and in that moment I will make a decision that is for me good, hopefully for Vitor what is good and hopefully for my family.
“Yeah, truly and from the bottom of my heart, I just hope that our paths cross again in the future – that would be absolutely unbelievable.”
