He might be a good manager for them in the. Championship.
The traitor!
- Thread starter rurikbird
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He might be a good manager for them in the. Championship.
So if Klopp takes over Chelsea or United next year, will you say the same? “Career goals change?”
No one forced Pep to make that promise and put it in his book - he did because it made him look loyal, when in fact he is not. I’m not overly bothered about him joining the other Pep, but he’s revealed himself as a cunt.
This is completely ridiculous! It's clear from the context that he meant that he'd only be a manager from that point on - something that had been his long term goal for years. He was clearly determined to do that and only harsh reality has stopped him. The idea that he was professing undying loyalty to Klopp - who isn't even managing anymore! - is bonkers.
Obviously he's going to go back to what he's actually good at. I doubt his financial position is remotely as comfortable as Klopp's.
surely his book sold really well?
I'm sure it did but it wouldn't be retirement money.
Learning from Klopp and learning from Pep on how to be a trophy winning manager sounds like a good idea when you have aspirations to be a trophy winning manager, no?
There is nothing wrong with what he is doing professionally. I am sure being number two to Guardiola will help him, no doubt about it. I guess everyone is getting a bit tired of the "I am a Liverpudlian for life, yada yada yada, please buy my book, engage on social media" messaging. I guess it is up to us not to fall for that.
I am pretty confident he will be financially secure even if he does not work for a single day from now on. But I don't blame him for wanting to learn from Guardiola and develop professionally. Also, saying yes to the City group could open up other interesting opportunities in the future, given that they are buying up clubs in different countries and continents.
I actually have no idea how much the coaching staff earn. A pretty small fraction of the manager's salary, though, I'd have thought.
Gary Ablett was on £100k/year when he was with us and that was at youth level back in 2009. I’d imagine Linjders would’ve been on about a million a year plus bonuses. A phenomenal amount but not enough for him to say “yea, fuck it”.
I have no problem with him taking other jobs in the Premier League but the die is cast when you choose City or United and slightly less so with Chelsea or Arsenal.
He's got to make choices that work for him and his family but, like with the Trent situation, those decisions may have consequences. He will not be wished well in this next stage of his career.
He's got to make choices that work for him and his family but, like with the Trent situation, those decisions may have consequences. He will not be wished well in this next stage of his career.
Well that's not a viable simile is it!
At that time it's probably how he felt. Times change.
They do, but it's on anyone considering such emphatic public announcements to factor that possibility into his thinking. Fail to do so and you deserve the catcalls that are going to follow when you go back on yourself. I happen not to think Lijnders is a cnut, and Klopp thought enough of him to fetch him back after he'd already left the club once, but at the same time this episode shows him to be a bit of a poser.
My bad, he was the key to winning everything, I just wished we sacked Klopp now and just retained him as head coach.
Well yes I agree 😂
No one will be clapping him, I won't, but it doesn't matter to him. Times have changed and he's doing what he feels is best for his career / family security.
I am ambivalent on this.
Worked well with Red Bull
Psssst Pep and Trent bum dogs together whilst wearing rat masks. Pass it on.
View: https://x.com/TheAnfieldWrap/status/1932436395190010136
Is he warming his hands up before fingering big Pep's hound?
Looks like Pep won a game of slaps
Fingering the dogs? None of that foreplay malarky they're gonna dive straight right in
He's a good coach but a poser at the same time. Witness his repeatedly trying to be a manager when it plainly wasn't his bag, his handing out copies of that book of his to all and sundry when it came out, or that bloviating to which you rightly draw attention.
It would be interesting to know what gkmacca thinks of him now.
It would be interesting to know what gkmacca thinks of him now.
From the Athletic
Pep Lijnders had been carefully considering his next move.
Being sacked by Red Bull Salzburglast December, just seven months into his reign as head coach in Austria, hurt the former Liverpool assistant manager. He needed some time to get over it.
Having spent 18 years coaching abroad, he returned to live in his native Netherlands with wife Danielle and their young sons, Benjamin and Romijn. He was enjoying the benefits of a first extended break for nearly two decades — being able to do the school run, play chess with the kids, and drink coffee with his wife next to the river at their idyllic home close to the south-eastern Dutch city of Venlo.
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However, in recent months, he had started to miss the buzz of being out on the training field helping to develop players. There had been interest from clubs in Portugal, and Norwich City also got in touchduring their search for a new head coach.
Lijnders gave an online presentation during a second round of discussions with the Championship club on May 20, but it wasn’t the right fit for either party and they appointed Bristol City’s Liam Manning instead. The situation was complicated by the fact Lijnders was effectively still on gardening leave from Salzburg with no financial agreement in place over the two remaining years on his contract.
A week later, on May 27, he received a phone call from Pep Guardiola that changed everything. The Manchester City manager explained that he wanted Lijnders to be his assistant coach.
Lijnders was a close ally of Jurgen Klopp (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Guardiola, who was reshuffling his coaching staff following the summer exits of Juanma Lillo, Carlos Vicens, and Inigo Dominguez, wanted Lijnders to do for him what he had done for Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool in terms of helping to design and deliver the training programme.
They chatted for half an hour about their footballing principles and what kind of responsibilities Lijnders would have at the Etihad. Guardiola was clear that he needed him on board immediately for this month’s Club World Cup, which kicks off for City against Moroccan outfit Wydad AC in the U.S. city of Philadelphia on June 18. That commitment would mean needing to rearrange a family holiday.
The call wasn’t a complete bolt from the blue, as Lijnders had heard from former colleagues the previous week that Guardiola had been asking about him. It meant he had already got his head around the possibility of working for City, given his close affinity with Liverpool.
The rivalry with Guardiola’s Cityhad been intense during his nine-and-a-half years of service at Anfield. Liverpool’s Premier League title triumph of 2019-20 had been sandwiched by the agony of missing out to City by a solitary point in both 2018-19 and 2021-22.
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There had been a succession of titanic battles and plenty of bad blood between the clubs, intensified by City facing more than 100 charges for alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.
Yet the more Lijnders thought about it from a coaching perspective, the more he was convinced that this was an opportunity he simply couldn’t turn down. Klopp and Guardiola are arguably the two finest managers of the modern era and he would be able to say he had worked as an assistant for both of them.
Guardiola had done his homework. When City travelled to St Mary’s to face lowly Southampton in the Premier League on May 10, he made a point of talking to former Liverpool player Adam Lallana to ask for his thoughts on Lijnders.
Pep Guardiola deep in conversation with Adam Lallana at Southampton last month (Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images)
The City manager called Klopp on the same topic and received more glowing feedback about Lijnders’ contribution to helping Liverpool win the Premier League, Champions League, Club World Cup, FA Cup and Carabao Cup (twice). Guardiola also turned to Mark Leyland, the former Liverpool analyst, who has been City’s head of coaching methodology since July 2023.
By the end of that first conversation with Guardiola, Lijnders had accepted the job in principle, then it was left to his agent, Marc Kosicke, to negotiate with City’s director of football, Hugo Viana.
Three days later, on May 30, personal terms were agreed on a two-year contract (one year guaranteed with the option of a further 12 months). Lijnders called Klopp to tell him that he had decided to make the move to the Etihad. Out of respect, he also rang Arne Slot.
Lijnders and the current Liverpool head coach had been in regular contact during Slot’s first triumphant season in charge at Anfield. Their friendship goes back a decade to when Slot was in his early days as a coach at Cambuur and he reached out to Lijnders for advice.
The president of Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, Mike Gordon, rang Lijnders to wish him well and reassure him that Liverpool’s owners would always appreciate what he had done for the club and that their relationship wouldn’t change.
Last Wednesday, June 4, a settlement with Salzburg was agreed and Lijnders signed his contract with City — who paid no compensation — shortly after. He flew to Manchester on Sunday and attended a dinner with Guardiola and staff that evening before getting down to work on Monday. The move was confirmed this morning, with the squad due to fly to America on Thursday.
The idea of Lijnders being Guardiola’s No 2 would have seemed preposterous when he left Liverpool at the end of the Klopp era 13 months ago on a mission to launch a managerial career of his own.
He had also attracted interest from Ajax, Besiktas, Porto and Stoke City, but decided that Salzburg was the best fit for him given their commitment to developing young talent and their desire for him to implement a less direct, more attractive style of play in his favoured 4-3-3 system. Ironically, the fact they would be taking part in the revamped Club World Cup was also part of the attraction.
Lijnders was dismissed by Red Bull Salzburg in December (Kerstin Joensson/AFP via Getty Images)
It started well for him in Austria as he guided them through the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, but then their fortunes nosedived. Injuries cut deep and a series of setbacks dented confidence levels.
They were fifth in the league, 10 points behind leaders Sturm Graz, when he was sacked by Salzburg’s new managing director of sport, Rouven Schroder, in mid-December. The decision was taken just a fortnight before Klopp officially joined Red Bull as their head of global soccer.
Lijnders was convinced that with the schedule allowing for more time on the training field after the winter break and key personnel returning to fitness, he would still have salvaged something significant from the season. However, he knew that if the Salzburg hierarchy had lost faith in him, then it was best they went their separate ways.
During the period of reflection back in the Netherlands that followed as he rewatched training sessions and matches, he concluded that he had asked too much of a young squad by trying to change things too quickly.
Given that his only previous stint as a head coach at Dutch club NEC Nijmegen had lasted just four months in 2017-18, Lijnders knew he needed to take stock and not rush into another challenge. After six months off, he’s refreshed and ready. He didn’t want to uproot his family again and they will stay in their homeland and visit Manchester regularly.
WHAT YOU SHOULD READ NEXT
Pep Lijnders: Leaving Liverpool, ‘unbelievable’ Slot and why he’s ready to manage
The Dutchman reveals why he did not want to stay at Anfield after Jurgen Klopp's exit and his ambitions for Red Bull Salzburg
The sight of Lijnders with the City crest on his chest will take some getting used to. Next season, he will be plotting Liverpool’s downfall. Some will question how he could do it given his previous role on Merseyside, but others will accept that it’s business.
Liverpool are actually in the market for an assistant themselves following John Heitinga’s recent departure to take over at Ajax, but they wouldn’t have brought back Lijnders. The dynamic wouldn’t have been right given how it works currently between Slot and his trusted No 2, Sipke Hulshoff.
ADVERTISEMENT
Lijnders is only 42 and still has managerial aspirations of his own. His decision to join City should not be interpreted as him giving up on being at the helm or accepting he’s best suited to a supporting role. He’s only signed a relatively short deal at the Etihad.
He had previously stated that he wouldn’t be an assistant to anyone other than Klopp. However, he would never have imagined a scenario where he was out of work and Guardiola came calling.
Pep Lijnders had been carefully considering his next move.
Being sacked by Red Bull Salzburglast December, just seven months into his reign as head coach in Austria, hurt the former Liverpool assistant manager. He needed some time to get over it.
Having spent 18 years coaching abroad, he returned to live in his native Netherlands with wife Danielle and their young sons, Benjamin and Romijn. He was enjoying the benefits of a first extended break for nearly two decades — being able to do the school run, play chess with the kids, and drink coffee with his wife next to the river at their idyllic home close to the south-eastern Dutch city of Venlo.
ADVERTISEMENT
However, in recent months, he had started to miss the buzz of being out on the training field helping to develop players. There had been interest from clubs in Portugal, and Norwich City also got in touchduring their search for a new head coach.
Lijnders gave an online presentation during a second round of discussions with the Championship club on May 20, but it wasn’t the right fit for either party and they appointed Bristol City’s Liam Manning instead. The situation was complicated by the fact Lijnders was effectively still on gardening leave from Salzburg with no financial agreement in place over the two remaining years on his contract.
A week later, on May 27, he received a phone call from Pep Guardiola that changed everything. The Manchester City manager explained that he wanted Lijnders to be his assistant coach.
Lijnders was a close ally of Jurgen Klopp (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Guardiola, who was reshuffling his coaching staff following the summer exits of Juanma Lillo, Carlos Vicens, and Inigo Dominguez, wanted Lijnders to do for him what he had done for Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool in terms of helping to design and deliver the training programme.
They chatted for half an hour about their footballing principles and what kind of responsibilities Lijnders would have at the Etihad. Guardiola was clear that he needed him on board immediately for this month’s Club World Cup, which kicks off for City against Moroccan outfit Wydad AC in the U.S. city of Philadelphia on June 18. That commitment would mean needing to rearrange a family holiday.
The call wasn’t a complete bolt from the blue, as Lijnders had heard from former colleagues the previous week that Guardiola had been asking about him. It meant he had already got his head around the possibility of working for City, given his close affinity with Liverpool.
The rivalry with Guardiola’s Cityhad been intense during his nine-and-a-half years of service at Anfield. Liverpool’s Premier League title triumph of 2019-20 had been sandwiched by the agony of missing out to City by a solitary point in both 2018-19 and 2021-22.
ADVERTISEMENT
There had been a succession of titanic battles and plenty of bad blood between the clubs, intensified by City facing more than 100 charges for alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.
Yet the more Lijnders thought about it from a coaching perspective, the more he was convinced that this was an opportunity he simply couldn’t turn down. Klopp and Guardiola are arguably the two finest managers of the modern era and he would be able to say he had worked as an assistant for both of them.
Guardiola had done his homework. When City travelled to St Mary’s to face lowly Southampton in the Premier League on May 10, he made a point of talking to former Liverpool player Adam Lallana to ask for his thoughts on Lijnders.
Pep Guardiola deep in conversation with Adam Lallana at Southampton last month (Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images)
The City manager called Klopp on the same topic and received more glowing feedback about Lijnders’ contribution to helping Liverpool win the Premier League, Champions League, Club World Cup, FA Cup and Carabao Cup (twice). Guardiola also turned to Mark Leyland, the former Liverpool analyst, who has been City’s head of coaching methodology since July 2023.
By the end of that first conversation with Guardiola, Lijnders had accepted the job in principle, then it was left to his agent, Marc Kosicke, to negotiate with City’s director of football, Hugo Viana.
Three days later, on May 30, personal terms were agreed on a two-year contract (one year guaranteed with the option of a further 12 months). Lijnders called Klopp to tell him that he had decided to make the move to the Etihad. Out of respect, he also rang Arne Slot.
Lijnders and the current Liverpool head coach had been in regular contact during Slot’s first triumphant season in charge at Anfield. Their friendship goes back a decade to when Slot was in his early days as a coach at Cambuur and he reached out to Lijnders for advice.
The president of Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, Mike Gordon, rang Lijnders to wish him well and reassure him that Liverpool’s owners would always appreciate what he had done for the club and that their relationship wouldn’t change.
Last Wednesday, June 4, a settlement with Salzburg was agreed and Lijnders signed his contract with City — who paid no compensation — shortly after. He flew to Manchester on Sunday and attended a dinner with Guardiola and staff that evening before getting down to work on Monday. The move was confirmed this morning, with the squad due to fly to America on Thursday.
The idea of Lijnders being Guardiola’s No 2 would have seemed preposterous when he left Liverpool at the end of the Klopp era 13 months ago on a mission to launch a managerial career of his own.
He had also attracted interest from Ajax, Besiktas, Porto and Stoke City, but decided that Salzburg was the best fit for him given their commitment to developing young talent and their desire for him to implement a less direct, more attractive style of play in his favoured 4-3-3 system. Ironically, the fact they would be taking part in the revamped Club World Cup was also part of the attraction.
Lijnders was dismissed by Red Bull Salzburg in December (Kerstin Joensson/AFP via Getty Images)
It started well for him in Austria as he guided them through the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, but then their fortunes nosedived. Injuries cut deep and a series of setbacks dented confidence levels.
They were fifth in the league, 10 points behind leaders Sturm Graz, when he was sacked by Salzburg’s new managing director of sport, Rouven Schroder, in mid-December. The decision was taken just a fortnight before Klopp officially joined Red Bull as their head of global soccer.
Lijnders was convinced that with the schedule allowing for more time on the training field after the winter break and key personnel returning to fitness, he would still have salvaged something significant from the season. However, he knew that if the Salzburg hierarchy had lost faith in him, then it was best they went their separate ways.
During the period of reflection back in the Netherlands that followed as he rewatched training sessions and matches, he concluded that he had asked too much of a young squad by trying to change things too quickly.
Given that his only previous stint as a head coach at Dutch club NEC Nijmegen had lasted just four months in 2017-18, Lijnders knew he needed to take stock and not rush into another challenge. After six months off, he’s refreshed and ready. He didn’t want to uproot his family again and they will stay in their homeland and visit Manchester regularly.
WHAT YOU SHOULD READ NEXT
Pep Lijnders: Leaving Liverpool, ‘unbelievable’ Slot and why he’s ready to manage
The Dutchman reveals why he did not want to stay at Anfield after Jurgen Klopp's exit and his ambitions for Red Bull Salzburg
The sight of Lijnders with the City crest on his chest will take some getting used to. Next season, he will be plotting Liverpool’s downfall. Some will question how he could do it given his previous role on Merseyside, but others will accept that it’s business.
Liverpool are actually in the market for an assistant themselves following John Heitinga’s recent departure to take over at Ajax, but they wouldn’t have brought back Lijnders. The dynamic wouldn’t have been right given how it works currently between Slot and his trusted No 2, Sipke Hulshoff.
ADVERTISEMENT
Lijnders is only 42 and still has managerial aspirations of his own. His decision to join City should not be interpreted as him giving up on being at the helm or accepting he’s best suited to a supporting role. He’s only signed a relatively short deal at the Etihad.
He had previously stated that he wouldn’t be an assistant to anyone other than Klopp. However, he would never have imagined a scenario where he was out of work and Guardiola came calling.
Imagine how fucking insufferable he will be after studying Guardiola for a couple years. He was already a bit much.
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