🚨 JURGEN KLOPP ANNOUNCES HE WILL LEAVE LIVERPOOL AT THE END OF SEASON 🚨

Hail GFOP!

I write with fingers shocked by the stunning news we have all woken up to: Jürgen Klopp is leaving Liverpool at the end of this season after nine years at the club. A message delivered via this emotion-soaked announcement at 5:50 a.m. ET, as the 56-year-old told the world, “I’m still a normal guy. I just haven’t lived a normal life for too long now. And I don’t want to wait until I’m too old to have a normal life. And I needed at least to give it a try.” The second the news dropped, my phone blew up and I immediately turned to my WhatsApp group filled with heartbroken Liverpool friends losing their minds. One mourned, “It feels like when a truly beloved Pope passes away.” A second instantly replied, “No. It’s bigger than that.”

The news is overwhelming. Partly because there were no hints of the manager standing down early. Two years remain on his contract, and the announcement totally blindsided us amidst the ambitious wonder of a quadruple chase, arriving after neither rumor nor leak. Secondly, Jürgen Klopp was more than a football manager, he was a leader, a transformational change agent, and a deep empath in a chaotic world where that has become all too rare a currency. What he has achieved at Anfield since arriving like a Teutonic Care Bear in 2015 has been nothing short of alchemy.  

Back then, Liverpool was a club reeking of tradition, aspiration and haunted nearlies. Klopp transformed it with his singular brand of passion, faith, and bombast, unleashing that audacious, demanding collective pressing game which soon overwhelmed all-comers. Klopp’s Liverpool took the field with power, determination and exuberance – as if driven by their fans’ very passion – as the manager demanded his players “must fight with the last drop of fuel in their machine,” and then rewarded them with a big, big hug. 

To watch Liverpool was to feel alive. Champions League triumph in 2019 was followed by long-yearned for Premier League glory in 2020. I know I am an Everton fan and meant to despise everything in red, but the small percentage of me that is still human could only marvel at the joy Liverpool fans were experiencing along the way, and the memories they made as they “conquered all of Europe.” I was reminded of this on Wednesday night, when the Reds reached another Wembley final and their traveling fans raised a banner proclaiming, “Imagine Being Us.” I stared at that statement for longer than I care to admit, before realizing that I honestly can’t. That it does seem like under Klopp, Liverpool fans have journeyed to so many places both real and emotional, witnessed so many magical moments, and had so much bloody fun. Whatever you want to call the footballing style, “Gegenpressing,” “Heavy Metal Football,” or “Mentality Monsters,” it has been humanly transcendent to watch Klopp forge that connective trinity: the unity built between team, fans, and himself on the sideline with his fistbumps, ecstatic body jerks, always conducting the emotion. 

Ultimately, The Hug was Klopp’s most most powerful tactic of all – and I hope one day, there is a statue of him delivering one outside of Anfield, like a giant German Elmo that fans can just slip into and take a selfie. Indeed, as someone who has been on the receiving end of a Klopp hug, I can confirm they are better than any drug Aaron Rodgers has dabbled in. The Klopp hug communicates belief, gratitude, and infinite love. Life Affirmation without words. A reflection of the truth of the man who has delivered it 

What now? Klopp said this morning he hopes this news will be the ultimate motivator for his players. "Let’s now really go for it. The outside world wants to use this decision, laugh about it, wants to disturb us. We are Liverpool, we went through harder things together. And you went through harder things before me. Let’s make a strength of it. Let’s squeeze everything out of this season and have another thing to smile about when we look back in the future.” It is unknown if he will manage again. He said this morning, "If you ask me, ‘Will you ever work as a manager again?’ I would say now no. But I don’t know obviously how that will feel because I never had the situation. What I know definitely – I will never, ever manage a different club in England than Liverpool." For their part, the club have said, even though they found out in November, they are yet to approach a replacement. While I hope they will give Roy Hodgson (my favorite ever Liverpool manager) an emotional return, or throw the bank to tempt that tactical maestro Stevie Gerrard back from El Ettifaq, expect former midfielder Xabi Alonso, who has propelled Bayer Leverkusen to the top of the Bundesliga, to be the subject of Tabloid conjecture, and Liverpool fans’ fever dreams.

A quick word to Liverpool fans reading this: I send you my love today. I can't even imagine the feeling of hope and happiness and glory this man has brought into your life, now singed by that sudden shocking sting of loss. Take strength from the memories you have made together though, because it has been a marvel to watch this bloke – a culture builder, a serial transformationist, a deeply authentic, empathetic human do his thing. If anything, this announcement is a reminder that nothing is forever, and that we should not take a moment for granted. It is also fascinating that while every Liverpool fan I know has been agonizing about Mo Salah and his future – it is Jürgen that is the first to step off citing exhaustion. A reminder that the caregivers often pass on first, and a brutal truth that Rory Smith talked to me about when I saw him in December – it does not look that fun to be a Premier League Manager. It is a brutal job, lived out in the bright-lights of a global crucible with hysterical stakes, knee-jerk overreaction, and trial by tabloid, that grinds down all those that do it. I actually love that Klopp will sign off in a style befitting his unique personality, on his own terms, departing after a quadruple chasing-high.  

There will be more, much more to come on this story. Liverpool’s innocuous Fourth Round FA Cup clash against Norwich City on Sunday morning (9.30 a.m. ET, ESPN+) now becomes must-watch theater for the emotional outpouring that will begin – setting the tone for the rest of a season that is going to feel like equal parts Crusade and McNulty’s Wake Scene from the Wire. Jürgen Klopp deserves that. Not just for the footballing memories he has given us, but the life truths he has dispensed along the way. I have interviewed him many times over the years, and honestly, learned so much about life from each conversation. I want to leave you one conversation I went back to this morning in the immediate wake of hearing the news. On the eve of lifting the coveted first title for Liverpool, I met with Klopp in his office, and asked him, a deeply religious man, if winning is, indeed, the most important thing. Jürgen did not have to wait a beat before telling me, “If life should be judged at the end, when we stand in front of the (heavenly) door, they ask, ‘Did you win something or not?’ That would be really strange. They should ask, ‘Did you try everything to improve the place you have been, the house you have lived in, the mood, the love?’ And I will say, ‘Yes, I tried it everyday.’” 

YNWA

We will speak to Virgil Van Dijk on Tuesday. Send us your questions for that giant of a man here

🚨 FOR MORE ON KLOPP’S ANNOUNCEMENT, LISTEN TO TODAY’S EPISODE OF MIB EARLY KICKOFF, which was released just as the news started to crackle across social. 

Men in Blazers Magic Eight Ball, Presented by PrizePicks

One quick note before we go… As those of you who listened to today’s Pep Guaridola/John McGinn Pod Special will know, Men in Blazers has launched a partnership with the GFOPs at PrizePicks. This is a brand that we truly adore here at Men in Blazers. And the partnership enables us to do so much more here at the network. We talk a lot here about brands that believe in the growth of the game in this great nation, and PrizePicks is at the very top of that list. We are so grateful to the team over there who are allowing us to grow and produce more of the content you tolerate.

And with that comes a new feature in the Raven newsletter, from our resident Stats Expert Charlie Kipp, a Miami-based member of the Men in Blazers staff who loves fantasy sports almost as much as Fulham Football Club.

Charlie Writes: Darwin Nuñez. Is he an industrious footballer… or do we just think that because he is a top hat and a monocle away from being a Titan of Industry? The 24 year old enigmatic striker from Artigas, Uruguay is very much the Hulk of English football in 2024. Plenty of outings as mild-mannered Bruce Banner, but, ‘you won’t like him when he’s angry’ - and lately, Darwin is Angry. Three goals and three assists in all comps over his last six matches spells bad news for Josh Sargent 🇺🇸 and 8th-in-the-Championship Norwich, who come to Anfield on Sunday as, let’s be honest, sacrificial lambs. This feels the right time to ‘Hulk Smash’ Darwin Nunez MORE than 0.5 goals in all of your PrizePicks entries this weekend and set yourself up for success. If you haven’t joined PrizePicks, go to prizepicks.com/MIB and use code MiB for a first deposit match up to $100.

This Week in Men In Blazers

Klopp’s news caps some week at MiB Media Network. And not just because we were able to spend the afternoon talking with Joel Embiid two days after he dropped that 70-piece. His love of Arsenal, Real Madrid… and Peter Drury is so profound, it will blow your socks off when you hear it next Tuesday. The true joy has been watching Sam Mewis jump right down to work, stepping effortlessly out of the pages of People Magazine, right behind the microphone to unleash this poem of an interview with USWNT Lindsey Horan. LISTEN HERE. I love Lindsey and have had her on MiB many, many times, but never with this depth of insight and emotion that Sam can conjure. Brace yourself for a Mallory Swanson episode next week which will take you to some remarkably emotional places, and more much more to come.  

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Big Love. 

Let’s not take a second of watching this game together for granted.

Courage,

ROG

PS GFOP's Doug and Nikki Mark tragically lost their son Tommy when he was just 12 years old. In his honour, and inspired by his love of football, they created the TM23 Foundation, whose project "Tommy's Field" has created safe, accessible football pitches for children in Los Angeles. Nikki's new book chronicles their journey to create a lasting legacy for Tommy in the sport he loved. Buy it here.