Jürgen Klopp to leave Liverpool, club announces

Assistant managers Pepijn Lijnders and Peter Krawietz, as well as elite development coach Vitor Matos, will also leave the club at the end of the season, with Lijnders keen to pursue his own career in management.

He told Liverpool’s official website that he had decided to announce that he was leaving now in order for an orderly transition to take place.

He said: “I can understand that it’s a shock for a lot of people in this moment, when you hear it for the first time, but obviously I can explain it – or at least try to explain it.

“I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I love everything. But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take.

“It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.

“After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth – and that is the truth.”