Ex-Liverpool star reveals ‘big names’ will be ‘put off’ joining Liverpool because of post-Klopp ‘guillotine’
Glen Johnson thinks Liverpool will struggle to attract “big names” to replace Jurgen Klopp as they are “essentially putting their head in a guillotine”.
The German announced late last month that he will be leaving Anfield at the end of the season with the Reds boss citing tiredness as one of the main reasons for stepping down.
Klopp has won six major honours at Liverpool since joining the Merseysiders from Bundesliga outfit Borussia Dortmund in 2015 and he will go down as one of the club’s greatest ever managers.
And former Reds defender Johnson thinks Liverpool are ideally placed for a manager to come in and hit the ground running but he admits that’s easier said than done.
Johnson told told Betfred: “Liverpool are going to struggle to replace Jürgen Klopp in the same way that Manchester United have struggled to replace Sir Alex Ferguson, because managers of their quality don’t come around often.
“However, Liverpool are run very well and most of the foundations are already in place, so they’re in a position where they’re probably one of the few clubs where the manager and the coaching staff are the only things that they need to change.
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“Everything is in place for a top manager to walk in, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will get the same results and challenge in the same way because Jürgen Klopp’s special. The club is very well run, but Jürgen is going to be very hard, if not impossible, to replace.
“Any player coming in is going to want to know who the manager’s going to be, don’t they? Jürgen Klopp pulls people in. That’s a fact and that’s what the best managers do. José Mourinho did the same thing.
“They’re examples of managers that top players want to play for. If Liverpool try and sign a top player in the summer, then the player will want to know who exactly is going to replace Jürgen Klopp and who’s coming in with them. You need to excite the players enough to encourage them to move to Liverpool and obviously the club is a huge draw for players in its own right, but knowing who the manager is going to be is also very important.”
Xabi Alonso, who has guided Bayer Leverkusen to the top of the Bundesliga table this season, is currently the favourite to take over from Klopp at Liverpool and Johnson thinks he would “be a good choice”,
Johnson added: “I think it would certainly be a good choice. The right choice is something that nobody knows right now. Whichever manager comes to Liverpool next is going to be in for a super hard job and they’re going to need time.
“Being an ex-legend of the club and fans’ favourite will mean that Xabi’s given time, which doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s going to be successful, but I think the fans will have more patience with him and give him more leeway than they would with a manager that doesn’t already have an affiliation with the club. So from that side of it, I think it could be a good option.
“He’s doing a fantastic job at Bayer Leverkusen and he’s got the minerals for it, he’s a great lad, the players would love him and he would get them playing good football, I’m sure. We don’t know if he will be successful, or how much time he would need to eventually become successful, but I definitely think the fans would give him more time than any other potential candidate.”
On whether there is an outsider for the Liverpool position who would do a good job, he continued: “I don’t know. It’s such a hard situation because any manager that goes in next is essentially putting their head in a guillotine.
“If they maintain the same level of success, people will say, ‘as you should do because you’ve inherited a great team in a good moment’, so they almost expect it, so you’re potentially setting yourself up to fail. For this reason, I think this will put a lot of the big names off. It’s almost like the next manager will have to come in and take one for the team.”
