With his booming laugh and big bear hugs, Jurgen Klopp is one of the best man-managers in world football.
But new light has perhaps been shed on a colder, more ruthless side of the Liverpool manager in recent weeks, as former Reds opened up on their Anfield exits.
It started with captain Jordan Henderson, who completed a controversial £12m move to Saudi Pro League side Al-Ettifaq in the summer. In an interview with the Athletic back, he revealed how he had felt unwanted by both the German and the club as he decided to leave for pastures new.
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“There were a few things that sent alarm bells ringing,” he revealed. “I’ve got a very good relationship with Jurgen. He was very honest with me.
“I won’t go into detail about the conversation because it’s private, but it put me in a position where I knew that I wasn’t going to be playing as much. I knew there were going to be new players coming in my position.
“And if I’m not playing, as anybody will know, especially the manager, that can be quite difficult for me and especially when I’ve been at a club for so long, I’ve captained the team for so long. Especially when England’s a big thing for me. You’ve got the Euros coming up.
“And then there was an approach from Al Ettifaq to the club to see if it would be possible for me to go there. The reaction from the club again wasn’t to say no.
“At that moment, I felt as though my value or the want for me to stay, with the manager and within the club, maybe it had shifted. I knew that time would come at some point. I didn’t think it would be now. And I had to accept that.
“I’ve got very good relationships with Jurgen, with the owners of the club. That’ll be forever. What we’ve achieved together in the past 12 years has been incredible. But at the same time, it was hard for me to take that.
“If one of those people said to me, “Now we want you to stay”, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. And I have to then think about what’s next for me in my career.
“Now, that’s not to say that they forced me out of the club or they were saying they wanted me to leave but at no point did I feel wanted by the club or anyone to stay.”
He is not alone in feeling that way. Roberto Firmino left Liverpool at the end of his contract last summer, also moving to Saudi Arabia to join Al-Ahli. The Brazilian informed Klopp of his decision to leave the club in March 2023.
Yet in his recently-released autobiography, Si Senor, the forward recalls how he had previously felt confident of a new deal, only for communication between his representatives and the club to feel ‘muddled’ and ‘slow’.
He would also claim, ‘The boss was avoiding me’ at the start of 2023 as his game-time was left limited without explanation that would have at least previously been forthcoming.
Insisting there was a ‘difference in understanding’ as to what he could offer Liverpool, he would also share his relief that after telling Klopp that he wasn’t going to sign a new contract, his manager did not try and persuade him to stay.
Both Henderson and Firmino at least held talks with Klopp, which is more than can be said for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. He would join Besiktas on a free transfer in the summer, having found game-time increasingly limited during his final years at Anfield.
While he understood why he wasn’t playing as much, the midfielder was left surprised at there being no communication with the club about his future until he was informed his release was being confirmed in an official club statement.
“In January, I was getting a bit of momentum, scored at Brentford, then we had a bad result at Brighton — lost 3-0, got battered — and that was it for me,” Oxlade-Chamberlain told The Athletic. “And that was all I got.
“I was out of the squad for the majority of the rest of the season, training with the team, then on match days training on my own. I carried on, kept my head down and did everything to make sure I was ready, but ultimately the manager was going in a different direction that was sort of out of my control.
“Some of the younger players were getting an opportunity to be involved, getting them ready for years to come, which I understand. I just guess you want that communicated to you because you start going out of your mind thinking, ‘What more can I do here?’
“And it was never really written off that you’re not getting offered a new contract. It was never said. I obviously got the picture.
“I got told before they released the statement (three days before that Aston Villa game): ‘Just so you know, we’re putting this out about you, Milly, Bobby and Naby leaving.’
“And I was like, ‘Oh, okay. Thanks’. But there was nothing official at any point before. It was just… the silence was enough to know what the situation was. You just… expect certain things to be told – whether it’s good, bad, whatever, that’s how the game goes. The lack of communication was… a bit surprising.”
That’s football, though. Players get older, get replaced, get sold and life goes on. Something that Oxlade-Chamberlain is well-aware of.
“The longer I play the game, the more I realise you’re just an entity in the grand scheme of a business really,” he said. “There will be many more after us and there were many more before, people who have had great experiences.
“I had great, great times at Liverpool. I couldn’t say anything bad about my time there. I wouldn’t even say it ended badly. At the end of the day, the club is bigger than any one player. Sometimes there’s bigger fish to fry.”
The aforementioned trio might not have played as much as they would have liked towards the end of their Anfield careers, no longer feeling like cherished Klopp favourites, but they were still part of his first team squad. During their Reds careers, they won every prize there was to win before being discarded.
It might seem cold and ruthless, but it is, was, and will always be just part of the game. And their stories are nothing to the players that Klopp actually froze out at Anfield, at times banishing them from his first team squad and making it clear they were not wanted.
When Klopp took over as Liverpool manager in October 2015, Mario Balotelli was enduring a dismal loan stint at AC Milan following an equally pathetic maiden season at Anfield.
He would return to the Reds for pre-season at the start of the 2016/17 season, reportedly telling team-mates of his desire to impress the German and resurrect his Liverpool career. However, Klopp had other ideas, with his mind long since made up about the Italian.
“I can talk of Mario because that one is obvious,” Klopp told reporters that July. “I heard a lot about him ever since I came here…
“Since he has been back here, he’s been a good guy and I can’t say anything different than that. It’s not that he’s come back and said: ‘Who’s the boss, I’m the boss, no sorry it’s you’. It’s not been that at all.
“Everything’s been good, it’s all okay. And now he’s here, we will do everything we can to get him fit.
“Then it will not be a situation for Mario – and I have spoken to him about this. He’s not at the stage of his career where he should be battling with four or five other players for one or two positions.
“We want Mario to become the player he was before his injury. The talent is still there – no doubt about it. When we have done the crossing, heading and stuff (in training), he’s been world class.
“But this is not a situation where he should be battling with other players like this for one position so it’s clear we need a solution.”
As Liverpool departed for the United States for a pre-season tour, Balotelli was left behind in Liverpool, having been left out of all squads for previous friendlies, and made to train with the Under-18s. He would later join Nice on transfer deadline day in August on a free transfer.
Balotelli’s agent, Mino Raiola, would slam Klopp for his treatment of the Italian days after the striker’s transfer to France was confirmed.
“In the end, the higher-ups at Liverpool admitted that Klopp was wrong (to send Balotelli to train with the reserves),” Raiola told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“I’m not trying to judge him as a coach – although, for me, he’s not a good coach – but he didn’t understand that Balotelli is, whatever else, a person.
“Mario has been exemplary. He never complained about training alone. To say that it was wrong of Klopp would be an understatement; he was a piece of s**t about it.”
Meanwhile, Balotelli would break his silence on his virtually non-existent relationship with Klopp the following month.
“Klopp does not know me and I do not know him,” Balotelli told Italian media at the time. “I was back in Liverpool a month and a half and I spoke to him once.
“He explained to me that I could stay there but I was not his first choice and he told me it was better if I went somewhere else.
“If I got games, did well, I could come back but I said goodbye and thank you, and that we wouldn’t be seeing each other again.”
Balotelli wouldn’t be the only player ‘banished to the reserves’ in the summer of 2016, after Mamadou Sakho was sent home from the aforementioned pre-season tour of the United States.
The Frenchman had only just returned after being investigated by UEFA for allegedly violating an anti-doping rule, having tested positive on March 17 following a Europa League game against Manchester United only for the test to later be dismissed. Yet his behaviour on tour irked Klopp and ultimately signalled the end of his Liverpool career.
He reported late for the Reds’ flight to the United States, before turning up late for a team meal and missing a treatment session in Palo Alto. That was enough for his manager. Three strikes and Sakho was out.
“I have to build a group here, we have to start new here,” Klopp said. “So I thought maybe it made sense for him to fly home to Liverpool and after eight or 10 days when we come back we can talk about it. It’s not that serious.
“He nearly missed the departure of the plane, he missed a session and was late for a meal. We have some rules and we have to respect them. If somebody doesn’t respect it or somebody gives me the feeling he is not respecting it then I have to react that’s all.
“It is private how he reacted. But we had no argument, it wasn’t ‘Arghh, you, no…’. I spoke. You cannot argue when only one person is speaking. That’s all. I think missed a session is missed a session. Even injured players have sessions.”
Yet despite Klopp playing down the incident at the time, it soon became clear that it was not injury preventing Sakho’s return to the Liverpool first team following the Reds’ return to England.
He would turn down August interest from Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion before being sent to train with the U23s at the Kirkby Academy. The Frenchman soon hit out at the ‘lie’ about his situation in September 2016 in a series of posts shared on his official Snapchat at 3am, insisting he was fit to play.
“Now it’s three weeks I am fit to play games. They don’t want me to play with segonde (segondo, U23s) team lol,” he wrote. “Still working hard like Scouse Soldier! Still not talking cos I want to speak on the pitch….I will speak soon for the people who support me and don’t understand the situation (emoji).
“Still happy to live in my Liverpool Country (emoji) with my family, hope to have chance to play soon to give my best like I try to always do! I accept my situation but I can’t accept the lie….the fans deserve to know the true! Thanks for your support (emoji) 6 six months stay quiet. Have good night everybody! You’ll never walk alone! (emoji).”
While Klopp was yet to publicly confirm that Sakho had no future at Liverpool, the writing was on the wall. After the suspension in April, it would be over five months before he would play again as he returned to action in the low-key setting of Prenton Park for the Under-23s against Wolfsburg, while he would make six appearances in Premier League 2.
Come January 2017 and the defender belatedly got the hint, as he left for Crystal Palace on loan on transfer deadline day. But not before speaking publicly about being sent home by Klopp for the first time.
Speaking in France, Sakho told Canal Football Club: “It is true that I turned up late. There was a rule that I should have observed. I do not at all see myself as above the rules, I respect everyone.
“I paid my fine, I was sanctioned, I apologised to my team-mates and my manager. Aside from that… I do not want to go into the controversies.”
Sakho had his fresh start at Selhurst Park and couldn’t wait to get started. “Right now it’s a new page for me,” he said at the time. “When I have a new shirt I always give my best.” Yet while he indeed gave his best, injury limited him to just eight appearances that season for the Eagles.
He would return to the Reds following the end of his loan before eventually completing a £26m permanent switch to Palace in September 2017. The bid was the Eagles’ fourth of the summer for the defender, as Liverpool compromised on their initial £30m asking price, such was their desire to get the Frenchman out the exit door once and for all.
Klopp would also decide that Lazar Markovic was not for him, though in different circumstances to the aforementioned pair.
The Serbian was on loan at Fenerbahce when Klopp took over at Anfield, only for his season to end prematurely because of injury in February 2016. He would feature in pre-season following his return to Liverpool and fitness, before joining Sporting Lisbon on loan at the end of August.
Recalled mid-season, he was then loaned out to Hull City as opportunities at Anfield still failed to materialise. While he played against Tranmere Rovers in a pre-season friendly in the summer of 2017, he was then left out of the travelling squad for the tour of Hong Kong, with Klopp confirming he was free to leave.
“With Lazar, it’s no secret that if he finds a club then we will negotiate. It was like this last year too,” Klopp told the ECHO in July 2017. “He’s a really good player. I like him as a person.
“He’s now fit and another one who is in the best shape since I’ve known him. Before he had problems with his groin but now he’s good. There will be a club out there who needs him.”
Markovic was an unused substitute for the Reds’ League Cup exit to Leicester City in September 2017, with the such a game his only competitive matchday squad appearance for the club outside of his maiden season at Anfield. Meanwhile, days later, he featured once for the club’s Under-23s side against Tottenham Hotspur in September 2017.
Yet he would have to wait until January for his next loan exit as he joined Anderlecht until the end of the season. And it was while he was away in Belgium that he slammed his parent club for their treatment of him.
“It’s to show that I’m still the same player, to show the people at Liverpool that they can’t treat me that way,” Markovic told Belgian newspaper DH. “Yes, it’s okay to take it personally when you are not let go because they’re asking for an unrealistic transfer amount.”
When asked whether he was letting the fact that he had just scored his first goal in almost a year get to him, the winger replied: “No, I’ve been thinking about it for months, that’s what I think.”
Reinstated in the Liverpool first team squad following his return from Anderlecht, Markovic featured regularly throughout pre-season ahead of the 2018/19 season. He was part of the travelling squad that toured the United States, and even scored in a friendly win over Blackburn Rovers.
Yet once the season started, he was back on the fringes, featuring four times for the Under-23s before belatedly leaving Anfield and joining Fulham on a free transfer in January 2019. After joining the Cottagers, Klopp shared his delight at Markovic finally being free to kickstart his career elsewhere.
“For him, it’s brilliant. I can imagine it was unbelievably difficult for him,” he said. “It was not too easy for me – that’s not too important – having a player like him in the wider squad and not using him.
“But it was clear, Lazar knew for a long time how our plans are, and for different reasons transfers didn’t work out. We were not responsible for that.
“Now he can go to Fulham and use and show his potential again, which I’m happy for. He’s a good lad and a really good footballer – hopefully it will work out for him.”
Elsewhere, you can include Loris Karius, who never made an appearance for Liverpool after his horror show in the 2018 Champions League final. Following the signing of Alisson Becker, he was sent on a two-year loan to Bestikas before spending the 2020/21 campaign with Union Berlin.
But after he found no takers for his services in the summer of 2021, the German ended up sitting out the final year of his contract at Anfield with no prospect of playing for the first team before joining Newcastle United on a free transfer.
“So, there are different things. One is Loris Karius the player, who is doing absolutely nothing wrong, who is in a really good shape, who is training very hard,” he said of his compatriot in January 2022. “He is committed, the goalie coaches are fully committed, that’s clear.
“But before the season we made a decision. Obviously it was in the club’s interest as well that Loris finds a new club, stuff like this. That didn’t happen, so fine.
“We made a decision: he’ll be treated completely normally absolutely but we have the goalies. As long as we don’t have a massive situation here, our No.1 is Ali, our No.2 is Caoimh, No.3 is Adrian, No.4 is Marcelo and then there’s already four goalkeepers.
“We were never in a situation where we had to use the fifth one. It has nothing to do with the quality, we made the decision and the boys do really well obviously. I think everybody is impressed by the development of Caoimhin Kelleher, who is ready for pretty much everything.
“We all know about the quality of Adrian and the impact he has on training and the dressing room and stuff like this and would always be ready to go. And Marcelo is an incredible talent, an absolutely incredible talent, the next one in line. That’s it.
“But Loris, I wish him only the best and he will find a club whenever – now or in the summer. And then from there he will go on, I’m very sure.”
Jose Enrique and Steven Caulker in 2015/16, Jon Flanagan in 2017/18, and Ben Davies in 2020/21 are a few of the other players to find themselves practically completely overlooked by Klopp during his reign as Liverpool manager.
While Henderson, Firmino, and Oxlade-Chamberlain might be a little aggrieved at how their Reds careers ended, at least they departed with every possible winners’ medal around their necks. As the aforementioned players demonstrate, the former Liverpool trio were some of the lucky ones.
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
