Julian Nagelsmann has been thrown into the conversation about Jurgen Klopp’s eventual successor by James Pearce of the Athletic.
Klopp is contracted to Liverpool until 2024, and obviously we have absolutely no necessity for him to leave before then!
In fact, we’d love Klopp to stay for even longer – but four years is a long time in football and nobody can predict what’s going to happen.
For this reason, speculating on our next manager is spurious, but two names always mentioned are Steven Gerrard, our legendary former captain currently doing a great job with Rangers, and Pep Lijnders, Klopp’s no.2 who has learnt from the German and knows the current team inside out.
“Pep Lijnders is massively respected by the owners and is a popular figure throughout the club. He would certainly be part of the conversation when it comes to successors,” Pearce writes. “If RB Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann’s managerial career remains on an upward curve at that time, he’s bound to be of interest too. So much can change in the space of four years. I still think Steven Gerrard is destined to manage Liverpool. I know their domestic form hasn’t been great recently but in general, he’s done a great job at Rangers. In football, it’s all about timing. I’d love to see Gerrard enjoy success over the next few years, whether that’s at Ibrox or at another club, and then be in a position where he has sufficient experience to be Klopp’s successor.”
Nagelsmann definitely seems a bit special. After all, he’s only 32-years-old – which is absurdly young for a manager achieving what he is in Germany.
He plays superb football, too, and our close relationship with his club, Rb Leipzig, would smooth a switch, too.
Having said that, we remember when Andre Villas-Boas was the next ‘Big Thing’ and his stock began to fall as soon as he got a big job – so there’s no guarantee Nagelsmann will still be so highly rated when the time arrives for us to appoint a new manager – which is a very long way off!