One reliable reporter has indicated a ‘likely’ date for Liverpool to announce the identity of the club’s next manager.
The Reds are on the lookout for a successor to Jurgen Klopp, with Ruben Amorim currently appearing to be in pole position to take over from the 56-year-old.
Speaking on Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, the publication’s transfer correspondent Pete O’Rourke expects that the current season will run its course before any official confirmation of the next LFC boss.
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He explained: “I think more likely it will be post-season, just to be fair to Jurgen Klopp to see out the season. Liverpool are fighting for the Premier League title and the Europa League, so they won’t want any distractions.
“It’s the same for the potential targets. I’m sure Ruben Amorim at Sporting Lisbon doesn’t want any distractions between now and the end of the season as well, he’s got his own targets to go for, trying to win the Portuguese title.
“I think it wouldn’t be fair, especially on managers who are in jobs right now, to have any announcements of potentially moving into a new job. I think post-season is the most likely scenario for Liverpool to announce who is going to replace Klopp.”
O’Rourke added: “I don’t expect any announcement before the end of the season, and I think we’ll probably get it in early June, ready ahead of pre-season.”
One source from Portugal indicated earlier on Friday that Liverpool are ‘pushing’ to try and secure a deal for Amorim before the end of the season, so there appears to be a disparity between various outlets as to when we’ll likely know for sure who’ll be taking over from Klopp.
It could be a case of Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes progressing with negotiations for the successful candidate between now and the end of May, with an agreement finalised before then, but possibly with any official announcement embargoed until the campaign concludes.
If it’s to be early June that we see the white smoke emanating from L4, as O’Rourke has projected, that’d enable the new manager to be in situ for a few weeks before pre-season begins in earnest, and potentially pull off a couple of transfers by that stage.
Hopefully Liverpool will have Klopp’s successor officially in place within a week or two of the current campaign ending, having had a few months already to seek out the right candidate, in the knowledge that the German is moving on this summer.