Jurgen Klopp insists Liverpool will appoint “top manager” – but he won’t be involved!

Jurgen Klopp has insisted he will not advise Liverpool when it comes to his successor, but believes the foundation is in place for a “top manager” to come in.

With the news of his unexpected departure breaking on Friday morning, Klopp sat down in front of the assembled press to explain his decision to leave.

This Is Anfield was among those in attendance at the AXA Training Centre, where among many other questions the manager was asked about his potential successor.

Klopp, who will move on at the end of the season, was asked whether he would have a hand in Fenway Sports Group’s next appointment.

“No, why should I?” he replied.

He added: “It looks like I do all the job; I don’t, I can’t and I don’t.

“That means all we built over the last eight-and-a-half years has an incredibly strong structure behind the scenes.

“So everything goes in the right direction, so that’s the good news.

“That’s one of the reasons why I can leave, because my responsibility is so big, my idea was always to put everything in place and help with everything so this club gets stronger and stronger and stronger.

“We did that. To perfection? No. But as good as we could.

“That means so many people work here, and with only one idea: to find the perfect solution for Liverpool FC. I’m pretty sure that will happen.

“And the last thing they need is advice from the old man walking out, telling them ‘by the way, make sure you bring him in’. I will definitely not do that.”

Sat alongside Klopp in the media room at the AXA Training Centre was Liverpool chief executive officer Billy Hogan, who gave an insight into the process to come.

“[Jurgen] wanted to give the club the opportunity to go through what will be an orderly process, and that’s not easy to do if this news isn’t public,” Hogan explained.

“We will go through that process, as we have done in the past – the same process that brought us Jurgen almost nine years ago – and that’s something we will do in private.

“As Jurgen said, the people that are here, our ownership, [FSG president] Mike Gordon in particular, will be a part of that process.

“When we get to a place where we have further news on that, then we can discuss it at that point, but it’s not going to be something that’s going to be a running commentary.

“At this club, we prefer to operate [so] when we’re ready to talk about thing we will, and until that point, we won’t.

“We won’t talk about other people and we won’t get into the name game.”

Despite Liverpool not involving themselves in “the name game,” a number of potential candidates have already been the subject of speculation, not least Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso.

If Alonso is the man to follow Klopp, it would be something of a risk despite his relative success in Germany so far, but the current manager believes the foundation is in place for “really good football.”

“Whoever comes in, I cannot give anybody a guarantee to win trophies, but there’s a good chance to play really good football. And that’s fine!” he said.

“Because you will get a top manager here, and then there will be good football.

“What we all learned and improved and did in the last few years, changing from doubters to believers, and staying believing in difficult moments, if we keep all that, then it is a wonderful future ahead.

“That’s all I want. I won’t be the passenger who disturbs that process.”