Jurgen Klopp explains plans after leaving Liverpool – and when he will be back!

Jurgen Klopp knows he will return to Anfield as a supporter, but beyond that, his plans are up in the air after over 23 consecutive years as a first-team manager.

The 56-year-old declared “I am one of you now” in his final speech to supporters on the Anfield turf, insisting he will “stay a believer” as one chapter closes and another opens.

He went a step further in his final press conference by saying: “I will come back occasionally just, how I said, as a supporter now, and I’m fine with that, honestly.

“Maybe not for the first game of the season – that’s early (August 17), wow! Maybe after the second international break or something like this.”

We’ll hold you to that, Jurgen!

‘Nobody believe I probably will not be a manager again’

But as for between now and then and even beyond, Klopp has already confirmed that he will never return to England as a manager, and even stepping back into that role at all seems unlikely.

Klopp explained: “I will work. It’s difficult, I don’t know exactly why nobody believes I probably will not be a manager again, but I understand because obviously, it seems to be a drug.

“It looks like [it] because everybody comes back and everyone works until they are 70-something. I always had the idea that I will not do that that long.

“Look, other people are smarter, other people can do it in different ways. I have to be all-in, I have to be the spark, I have to be the energiser, I have to be all these kind of things, and I’m empty. That’s it.

“My biggest worry today was John Achterberg was coughing all the time next to me and I thought I would wake up tomorrow morning and I’m ill because he did his coughing in my direction.

“I have to start with rest now, and then we will see. But it’s not now that I feel now already and [think about] maybe the next opportunity.

“You only have to look outside which clubs are obviously available and stuff like this. There will be opportunities, but I don’t sit here and think, ‘Maybe in a year’s time I take that.’

“In this moment, [it’s] see you later.”

It is an understandable stance to take having admitted that his tank is “empty,” and now he hands over the reins to his wife, Ulla, who “will update me where we go and stuff like this, but I follow happily.”

Enjoy your next chapter, Jurgen. You’ve earned it.