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It’s time to fire up the rumor mill.
Once again, there’s speculation that Jurgen Klopp, at some point, could become manager of Bayern Munich. The current Liverpool — and former Mainz and Borussia Dortmund — manager is in his sixth season in charge of the Merseysiders and is going through a significant rut just over six months after lifting Liverpool’s first Premier League title in 30 years.
Klopp also led Liverpool to the Champions League title in 2019 as well as the UEFA Supercup and FIFA Club World Cup. Not to mention, in his first season in charge, he got them to the League cup final and the Europa League final (2016).
Per a new report from The Mirror, former Liverpool midfielder turned Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp says he believes that Klopp will someday be Bayern manager. There’s been rumors in the pats linking Klopp with the German national team job, but Hansi Flick has now been connected with that post, which was played down by both Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Uli Hoeness.
Ahead of Liverpool’s 4-1 loss to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at Anfield, Redknapp reflected on what Klopp had said in a previous press conference earlier in the week regarding the club’s transfer policy. It’s clear that they were desperately trying to find cover for the injured Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez at center-back.
They wound up signing Ozan Kabak from Schalke and Ben Davies from Preston North End on deadline day last week. Still, Redknapp felt that Klopp might’ve felt like his hands were tied a bit when it came to looking specifically for a van Dijk replacement.
“I thought Jurgen’s words were really interesting. I sensed frustration with him because he wanted a new player. The problem was who could Liverpool buy to replace Virgil Van Dijk? You can’t spend £50-60million on a player knowing that in April your best player is coming back from injury. It could cause more problems than it’s worth,” Redknapp said.
It’s no secret that Liverpool’s form has taken a significant dip since losing van Dijk and Gomez as they’ve now suffered five losses in the league this season and they’ve just had their remarkable home unbeaten record snapped by virtue of a 1-0 loss to 17th-placed Burnley at the end of January. It’s clear that Klopp is frustrated with the results, but any manager would be susceptible to suffer the same fate with the amount of injuries to key players they’ve experienced.
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Realizing Klopp’s obvious frustration that seems to surface during interviews and press conferences, Redknapp feels that he’ll still get things sorted once some players return from injury, but he doesn’t think Klopp will resist an eventual offer from Bayern.
“I was surprised to hear what Jurgen said — and maybe in a couple of years he might want to leave to manage someone like Bayern Munich. That always seems to be the calling for a lot of German players and managers. I think there was a sense of frustration with him, but once Liverpool get their best players back at the end of the season I am sure he will be fine,” Redknapp explained.
Opinions amongst Bayern fans are split on whether or not they’d like to see Klopp in Bavaria, but his pedigree would suggest he’d certainly collect a bevvy of silverware as Bayern manager. To a certain extent, since they are both obvious frontrunners to succeed Joachim Low, a lot of Klopp’s future will depend on who the DFB would approach first for the national team’s managerial post.
Flick already has the experience working with Die Mannschaft as an assistant to Low, but Klopp could be to good of a candidate to pass up, especially if he doesn’t extend his contract at Liverpool beyond 2024. Flick managing the national team and Klopp taking his spot at Bayern would be more than ideal in a perfect world.
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