JURGEN KLOPP was genuinely surprised to hear it, on the January day when he announced his intention to quit Liverpool at the end of the season.
It was put to him that Sir Alex Ferguson had told his Manchester United players in the summer of 2001 that the coming season would be his last.
Ferguson later performed a U-turn and stayed at Old Trafford for another 11 years.
But the great Scot admitted that revealing his intentions had been the ‘biggest mistake I made’.
“I think a lot of them put their tools away,” said Ferguson, “They thought, ‘Oh, the manager’s leaving’.”
It was a part of English footballing history which Klopp knew nothing about and he raised his eyebrows when he was told about it.
But as the taunts of gloating Everton fans rang in his ears on Wednesday night – ‘you lost the league at Goodison Park!’ – Klopp may well have reflected on the wisdom of his announcement.
When Klopp revealed that he was quitting Anfield, Liverpool were top of the Premier League, having lost only a single domestic match all season – and that a controversial VAR-infested affair at Tottenham.
Since then, the Reds have been beaten five times in all – with their hopes of a farewell quadruple scuppered by shock defeats against Manchester United in the FA Cup, Atalanta in the Europa League, along with struggling Crystal Palace and Everton in the Premier League.
After the 2-0 defeat at Goodison Park – Klopp’s first-ever loss at the home of Liverpool’s local rivals – Wayne Rooney pinpointed the German’s departure announcement as a key factor in derailing their season.
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Rooney, working as a Sky pundit on the Merseyside derby, said: “These players are looking – Klopp’s so popular, even as an Everton fan I really like Jurgen Klopp – with him leaving the club, in their heads they’ll be thinking, ‘What does my future hold? Am I still gonna be a Liverpool player? Do I still want to be a Liverpool player?’”
Klopp’s hand may well have been forced in the timing of his statement.
Having told his staff of his intention to leave in November, there was always a chance that news would get out.
But the idea that it would not have a negative impact on Liverpool’s campaign was wishful thinking on the German’s part.
Whether consciously, or subconsciously, the knowledge that a long-serving boss was on his way, was always likely to play on the minds of his squad.
The futures of Liverpool’s best two players, Mo Salah and Virgil Van Dijk, were already in doubt.
But the imminence of Klopp’s exit has thrown those two situations into a sharper focus, with other players also becoming less certain about their career paths.
Liverpool’s injury crisis has eased significantly, yet their form has nosedived.
Klopp has been an outstanding manager, yet there have been more near misses than glories during his eight-and-a-half-year reign.
Unless Arsenal and Manchester City both suffer serious dips down the final stretch, Klopp’s final Anfield honours list will read: one Champions League, one Premier League, one FA Cup, two League Cups and a Club World Cup.
That is a very decent haul, yet not one which does full justice to the impact he has had on his club and on English football.
And the timing of his exit announcement has not helped, as Ferguson would doubtless recognise.
