Jurgen Klopp breaks silence on Arne Slot’s impending move to Liverpool as outgoing Anfield boss calls role ‘the best job in the world’ ahead of his emotional exit

Outgoing Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has publicly endorsed Arne Slot, the man expected to be his successor, describing the Feyenoord boss as a ‘good coach and good guy’.

Mail Sport reported this morning how the Dutch club are ready to complete a deal for their manager Slot to become Liverpool’s new boss within the next 48 hours. Advanced talks between the two clubs will continue this afternoon.

The Dutch club expects that these talks will come to a positive end, after Slot publicly admitted on Thursday evening that he wanted to go to Liverpool. Well-placed sources believe an agreement will be reached by the end of the weekend.

Slot emerged as the best candidate within Liverpool’s hierarchy and is now publicly backed by Klopp. “I am not involved in the process, just to clarify that,” Klopp said. ‘(But) I really like it when he’s the one. He wants to take over the job. Come on, let’s go for it. Excited.

‘I like the way his team plays football. Everything I hear about him as a man, (he’s) a good guy. Some people I know know him, but I don’t know him yet. Some people say he’s a really good guy. I like that a lot.

Klopp said he ‘liked the Dutchman’s football’ and that many people praised him

The outgoing football coach also claimed that managing Liverpool was the ‘best job in the world’

‘Good coach, good guy. I look forward to the club whether he is the solution or the man. I’m more than happy. It’s not for me to judge these things, but it all sounds very good to me.

‘This is the best job in the world, the best club in the world. Obviously now I’m even helping by not ending on a high, it seems. There is room for improvement. Great work, great team, great people. He would take a very, very interesting job.”

Klopp’s team all but surrendered the Premier League title on Wednesday evening with a meek 2-0 defeat at rivals Everton. The manager admitted in the immediate aftermath that he would need a ‘crisis’ at both Arsenal and Manchester City, who sit above the Reds in the table.

The German boss said it was the most emotionally painful defeat of his managerial career. “I can’t remember ever being as disappointed or frustrated after a game as I was after the game against Everton,” Klopp said.

‘I have lost many matches in my life, but it was special that we were not there. You see the other two Arsenal and City playing very positive football and achieving high results. We are where we are because we play positive football and we couldn’t do that.

“I blame myself 100 percent because we weren’t in the mood. We lost almost all the decisive battles, which was really bad. Generally one or two weeks where we don’t play positive football.

‘We have opportunities, but it feels like we are trying to catch up. I will do everything I can to try to play our football again, because that was not possible in the last game. I can’t say I think they still feel us around.

‘I’m pretty sure Arsenal and City now see it as a two-horse race, they have to say otherwise publicly, but I don’t expect them to lose two games. West Ham (who play Liverpool tomorrow) want and need to show a response and we are doing that.’

Liverpool will be boosted by the return of Cody Gakpo to the squad for the trip to London after the Dutchman’s wife gave birth to a boy this week and he missed the defeat at Everton. Klopp says he is ‘not ready to give up or wave the white flag’ in his last four games as boss.

More to follow…