LIVERPOOL CONFIDENTIAL: Jurgen Klopp’s shock exit will spark a summer of turmoil, Ruben Amorim joins Xabi Alonso and Roberto De Zerbi on the managerial shortlist

• Jurgen Klopp will leave Liverpool at the end of the season  
• The Reds will bid goodbye to porting director Jorg Schmadtke next week 
• Why Jurgen Klopp quit and who Liverpool should go for now – Listen to It’s All Kicking Off 

A summer of turmoil awaits at Anfield. No sporting director or manager could make transfer business tricky, plus there are uncertain futures for several key players and staff members going into next season.

Jurgen Klopp sent shockwaves through the football world on Friday when he announced his pending departure from Liverpool, with several key figures set to follow him out of the door such as right-hand men Pep Lijnders, Peter Krawietz and Vitor Matos.

Matos and Lijnders especially will have no shortage of offers from clubs on the continent. More worrying for Liverpool is the exit of sporting director Jorg Schmadtke next week. The German leaving is no huge surprise but it sparks uncertainty ahead of the summer transfer window.

Fitness coach Andreas Kornmayer and goalkeeping guru John Achterberg have not announced their departures but the turbulence ahead leaves the pair with unclear futures. A new manager is likely to demand their own coaching team.

Mail Sport reported on Sunday that Bournemouth technical director Richard Hughes is emerging as a candidate for the sporting director role in the summer. The former midfielder joined the Cherries under Eddie Howe and was later promoted to technical director.

Liverpool are in the process of drawing up shortlists for summer targets, and they have scouted a number of players, but stealing a march on rival clubs to new signings could prove tricky without clarity over the Reds’ long-term plans.

One source, who has worked in the recruitment department at a number of big teams in England and around Europe, tells Mail Sport that this uncertainty could see selling clubs and agents try to exploit Liverpool’s situation to get a better deal.

Even if they wanted to make any signings in the last days of the January transfer window – this is not the case but could have come to fruition if a rival made strides to sign a summer target – Liverpool would be in an awkward position with no long-term future currently mapped out.

And these uncertainties are likely to filter down to current players, too. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah all have contracts running out in summer 2025 and it is understood that it is unlikely any of the trio’s futures are sorted any time soon.

Salah has long been courted by Saudi Arabia, while Van Dijk will be 33 by the time his deal expires. There are no pressing concerns with any of those deals but Klopp’s exit is the sort of thing that could make the players less sure about staying put.

It is not all bad. Klopp genuinely believes he is leaving the club in a strong position – this is an undisputed fact given how far Liverpool have come since he arrived – but this summer could shape a generation at Anfield.

 

DATA WILL DETERMINE KLOPP’S SUCCESSOR

Liverpool’s search for a Jurgen Klopp successor is set to be placed in the hands of a particle physicist. William Spearman, who works as a data-cruncher for the Reds, will be given a key role in the recruitment process.

Spearman has a PhD in physics from Harvard University and worked at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research before taking over from Ian Graham as Liverpool’s director of research.

When Liverpool signed Japan captain Wataru Endo in August, Klopp waxed lyrical about how the data department had kept an eye on the former Stuttgart midfielder for a couple of years – in which he had outstanding individual statistics.

Spearman was pivotal to that and will also be influential in the quest to find a new manager, too. He will have already started crunching numbers, looking at underlying data that can build a better picture than results and the ‘eye test’.

 

DAVID WAGNER KNEW OF KLOPP’S DEPARTURE 

Jurgen Klopp’s good mate and opposition manager on Sunday, Norwich’s David Wagner, was one of the first people made aware of football’s best-kept secret that the Liverpool boss was stepping down.

While Klopp and Wagner only really see each other in the off-season or summers, the pair are still good pals and it is understood the Norwich boss was one of very few confidants aware of the bombshell news before it was decided to make it public.

 

A SURPRISE CANDIDATE TO REPLACE KLOPP? 

One name that will be an outsider on Liverpool’s list is Sporting manager Ruben Amorim, who is very well connected and shares an agent with the Reds’ Luis Diaz, though he is just one name from a large pool which Anfield chiefs will assess.

Sporting are top of the Portuguese top flight and Amorim brought the capital club their first league title in two decades in 2021. Liverpool Confidential has previously reported how the Reds have kept an eye on Sporting defenders Ousmane Diomande and Goncalo Inacio.

Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso, though, is seen as the hot favourite at this early stage. Roberto De Zerbi is also high on the shortlist. Both have their shortcomings, with Reds legend Alonso relatively new to management and De Zerbi’s system seen by some as too open for a top club.

The fact Real Madrid signed Carlo Ancelotti up to a new deal last month perhaps opened the path slightly for Liverpool – many suspected the Italian could leave this summer – but a vacancy at Barcelona, plus weekly turmoil at Manchester United, mean the Reds will face competition for whoever they make their first-choice target.

 

NAT PHILLIPS SET FOR LOAN 

Nat Phillips is set to complete his loan move in the coming days, with Blackburn and Cardiff still battling to win the race for the Liverpool defender. Mail Sport reported last week that the two clubs were keen on Phillips.

It appeared Jon Dahl Tomasson’s Rovers side were best placed to land the player, despite spending money on fellow defender Connor O’Riordan from Crewe. But Cardiff are trying hard to beat their Championship rivals to his signature.

Leeds were also keeping tabs on Phillips but Liverpool were understandably keen for guaranteed game-time after a sub-par spell at Celtic, where he failed to nail down a spot in the starting XI.

Liverpool assistant boss Pep Lijnders last week said Calvin Ramsay is also likely to go out on loan after failing to get into Preston’s squad even when he returned from an injury. Leeds are also said to be keen on the defender.

 

WORKS ONGOING ON ANFIELD ROAD END 

Liverpool are hoping to offer an update on the next developments of the Anfield Road End in the next fortnight, with the club missing the target of a late January full opening due to their involvement in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, which stalled works.

Reds fans were forced to be patient with the developments due to original contractors Buckingham Group going into administration. It saw much of the first half of the season played with the top tier of the stand empty.

That tier opened for the visit of Manchester United in December and Liverpool hoped to fully open the middle tier, which is hospitality seats, by the end of January. But building works were forced to stall due to two cup games at Anfield in the first month of 2024.

Contractors Rayner Rowen were working hard all of last week but any developments must be halted on matchday, which sets them back. The Reds, though, only have two games at home in February and they are hopeful of finally boosting the capacity to 61,000 by the end of the month.

 

KIRKBY KIDS

One of Jurgen Klopp’s reasons to leave is that he feels that he is leaving Liverpool in a very promising position – and much of that is down to the thriving academy, which had five graduates feature in Sunday’s first-team win over Norwich.

Klopp was asked about the success of the academy and simply said ‘there’s more to come’ before name-checking the likes of Lewis Koumas, Jayden Danns and Trey Nyoni. The former two names scored in a win for the Reds’ Under 23s yesterday.

Another one, Bobby Clark, was unlucky to not get minutes against the Canaries. Clark had his whole family at Craven Cottage for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final win, in which the midfielder – son of former Newcastle, Sunderland and Fulham player Lee – came off the bench.

Meanwhile, Wellity Lucky made his first start for the Under 23s in that win at Kirkby yesterday. Funnily enough, the defender has been unlucky with injuries. The Zaragoza-born teenager signed a professional deal last April.

 

CALVIN RAMSAY SET FOR LOAN 

Calvin Ramsay is joining Bolton Wanderers on loan. Liverpool were impressed with the work done by Bolton with Conor Bradley last season and that has played a part in their decision

 

WOMEN’S WATCH

Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman is a fan of You’ll Never Walk Alone. Either that, or the Dutch manager thinks the song played at Liverpool matches is the national anthem.

Before Liverpool’s clash with Arsenal at Prenton Park on Sunday in the Women’s Super League, the England Women boss stood up the second the song came on, as if she was paying her respects.

Two second-half goals meant the Gunners went home with all three points, though, with Vivianne Miedema breaking the deadlock in the second half and Caitlin Foord quickly adding a second.

‘They’re learning curves for us,’ said Reds boss Matt Beard. ‘First half, we made the better chances to maybe score. Against these types of teams you need to take them. There’s positives we can take. The frustrating thing is that we’ve lost the game.’

Meanwhile, Liverpool’s Missy Bo Kearns has become an ambassador for LFC Foundation, the club’s official charity. It underlines her commitment to making a difference in the city and its community.

‘The LFC Foundation is changing people’s lives for the better every day and I’m really happy to be able to play a small part in that now as an ambassador and I’m looking forward to getting even more involved in the work that they do going forward,’ she said.

Matt Parish, chief executive of LFC Foundation, added: ‘We are delighted to have Missy Bo on board as an ambassador, she is from the city and knows the importance of the work we do, and is very passionate about making a difference.’