Jurgen Klopp was not Liverpool's primary candidate, Newcastle messed up one appointment and Spurs seem incapable of getting their favourite.
Jurgen Klopp was not the first man to be offered the Liverpool job, Newcastle messed up one appointment and Spurs seem incapable of getting their favourite. So the Reds might be just fine without Xabi Alonso…, ignoring the advances of both Liverpool and Bayern Munich, perhaps with the Real Madrid job in mind further down the line.
They had tried to tempt the Dutchman to north London the previous winter after sacking Villas-Boas, before making Louis van Gaal their primary manager target, then almost immediately accepting he was probably going to hold out for Man Utd after the World Cup instead. A year later, and by now out of work, Ancelotti had a far more tantalising opportunity to return to the Premier League. The Italian had been sounded out by Fenway Sports Group in September 2015 – with Liverpool forlornly denying that story – as the reign of Rodgers limped on.
Remember when it was between Klopp and Ancelotti for the job? I bet Carlo told FSG he needed 5 established 29 year olds to do anything. Klopp came knowing he can turn water to wine.“He is the only one left. I hope the talks have entered their final stage,” the ever-forthcoming Roman Abramovich told the assorted press in June 2004, with Champions League winner Jose Mourinho long since identified as the manager to lead the Blues into their new era.
‘On one occasion, Ferguson revealed to me Chelsea had wanted him as their manager, soon after Roman Abramovich’s takeover. I thought it was one of those off-the-record nuggets I would not be able to use. So I asked did he want that going public. There is some disagreement. Mourinho was said by then-Reds midfielder Danny Murphy to be “massively disappointed” at being overlooked for the Anfield post, while confusion lingers over whether Liverpool approached the Portuguese first or vice versa.
The brain behind Barcelona’s reinvention was certainly the bookmakers’ favourite for the chance to replace Bruce Rioch, with relative unknown Wenger a distant possibility. “Then I had an interview with Ranieri, who was flattered but declined as he was waiting for a club in the top division. I also spoke with Martinez but the Belgian national job was an obstacle so that didn’t happen.”It was only after winning the Premier League with Leicester that Ranieri felt comfortable being a bit pickier with his posts. Which is to say he has managed Nantes, Fulham, Roma, Sampdoria, Watford and Cagliari in the seven years since.
It is to Howe’s immense credit that he excelled at Newcastle despite the rank incompetence of his arrival. The Magpies might appear to have cracked this football ownership lark – at least, they had – but their first big decisions were underpinned by laughable ineptitude. That masks the apparent private fury with which Emery ultimately came to his decision. One newspaper reporter criticised a ‘chaotic strategy’ which included Newcastle being ‘so sure that they’d landed Emery that they scrapped the final interviews they’d had planned this week with the other candidates,’ while the rush to backtrack and reframe Howe as the better appointment all along was risible.
Arne Slot was rather more keen to hear what Spurs had to offer but, once he had, he opted to stay where he was at Feyenoord. Roberto De Zerbi and Graham Potter were considered but, eventually, the field was whittled down to two: Luis Enrique and Postecoglou.
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