The announcement that Jurgen Klopp will step down as manager at the end of current season came as a huge shock to Liverpool supporters on Friday morning.

The team said in a tweet: “Jürgen Klopp has informed the club’s ownership of his wish to leave his position in the summer and has announced his decision to step down as #LFC manager at the end of the season.”

After communicating his desire to leave the club’s ownership in the summer, Jürgen Klopp has confirmed his intention to leave his role as manager of #LFC at the end of the current campaign.

It was also confirmed on LFC’s official website that assistant managers Pepijn Lijnders and Peter Krawietz, plus elite development coach Vitor Matos, will also leave their roles at the end of the season, with the former seeking to pursue his own career in management.

Klopp’s existing contract at Anfield had been due to run until 2026, so this morning’s news comes as a seismic shock to Liverpool fans, and to the footballing world in general.

Just as Bill Shankly and Sir Kenny Dalglish stunned us all when they called time on their spells in charge of the Reds, it seemed that nobody was prepared for today’s announcement.

The 56-year-old has attributed his intentions to leave at the end of the season due to him ‘running out of energy’, but he admitted that he’d informed senior figures at the club of his plans as far back as November.

Having ended Liverpool’s 30-year wait for a league title, won the Champions League, delivered the Reds’ first Club World Cup and won a succession of domestic trophies, along with putting up a sustained challenge to a dominant Manchester City team, Klopp will depart as one of the greatest figures in Anfield history.

As hard as it seems to believe, the job of replacing him now begins. Good luck to whoever comes next; they’ll have one extremely hard act to follow.

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