Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta attempted to convince Pep Lijnders to join him as his number two, the Liverpool assistant manager has revealed.
Dutch coach Lijnders is currently in his second spell at Anfield. He joined the club when Brendan Rodgers was manager and remained part of Jurgen Klopp's team, briefly leaving for a stint as NEC Nijmegen manager before returning to Merseyside in 2018.
Lijnders and Arteta knew one another from their time together getting their coaching badges and the Arsenal boss was keen to bring the 39-year-old along when starting out in management. And Lijnders has shed more light on the discussions in an extract from his new book.
"Mikel Arteta had asked me to be his assistant manager when he was preparing for his new step into management," Lijnders explained in his book, Intensity: Inside Liverpool FC - Our Identity , published by Reach Sport. "We were together years earlier on the Pro Licence course.
"His request came out of nothing. Imagine the assistant of Pep Guardiola and the assistant of Jurgen Klopp together at Arsenal. What a crazy thought.
"Mikel had said he felt: 'There was just a difference playing Liverpool before and after you came in.' This was the biggest compliment I ever got from somebody, I think, but I politely said no to him. A few months later, we won the title for the first time in 30 years."
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Lijnders, who took charge of Liverpool for their January game against Chelsea, when Klopp missed out through illness, has been tipped as a potential successor to the German. He extended his stay at Anfield in 2022, signing a new deal shortly after Klopp himself penned an extension.
“That’s the plan, it is the plan yeah,” he said in December when asked if he could see himself moving into the main hot seat. “When the time comes I will sit down with my management and I will see the options I have, and after that we will decide. So. definitely, that’s the plan.”
After his comments, Liverpool continued to battle for glory on four fronts. They fell just short, finishing second in the Premier League and losing the Champions League final, but won both domestic cups with penalty shoot-out victories over Chelsea.
"To have Pep and Pete [Krawietz] join me in signing new deals and therefore making sure we’d continue to work together was incredibly important to me in making my decision to sign my own contract," Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com in April.
"I’ve said there were a number of things that made my decision an easy one – and Pep and Pete signing was one of them. A massive one, in fact. It is important they remain here to continue the continuity of our project together. What they bring to Liverpool FC is invaluable."
Pep Lijnders Intensity: Inside Liverpool FC - Our Identity, published by Reach Sport, is on sale August 4 from Amazon.
