Jurgen Klopp is giving it up but he declared managing Liverpool is “the best job in the world”. And if he is unashamedly biased, one interpretation is that there are times when Klopp made it seem so. Yet when it came to replacing him, the candidates on the shortlist boasted lesser achievements than in 2015, when Liverpool were 10th, a few months after they had lost 6-1 at Stoke, when they had not played a Champions League knockout tie for six years. Then it pitted Carlo Ancelotti against Klopp. His replacement will not arrive with the reputation as the best manager in the world.
Now, instead of the coronation of Xabi Alonso many wanted to see, Arne Slot has emerged by stealth to become the German’s successor. There are superficial similarities with Klopp – each an undistinguished player and overachieving manager in his homeland – but a comparison does not flatter the Dutchman. He has won one Eredivisie title with Feyenoord to Klopp’s two in the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund; the European final he has reached is the Conference League, not the Champions League.
