Shankly exit triggered succession plan. Will Klopp departure derail Liverpool?

Tony Wilson stands on the corner of Lime Street and London Road and breaks the news to disbelieving Liverpool fans that their beloved, charismatic manager is leaving. The young reporter for Granada TV breaks their hearts too. For Bill Shankly in 1974 read Jürgen Klopp 2024. The news may be relayed differently half a century later but the profound sense of shock and the despair that a transformational era is ending are exactly the same.

The famous old footage of “Mr Manchester” seeking reaction to Shankly’s exit was all over social media within minutes of Liverpool dropping the bombshell news that Klopp’s nine-year reign will finish at the end of this season. It seemed appropriate.

Both were announced on a Friday, as was Kenny Dalglish’s surprising but ultimately understandable departure as manager in 1991. But parallels between Klopp’s and Shankly’s decisions run deeper than dates or the shock upon hearing the news. The two men cited tiredness and the intensity of the job as reasons for stepping away from a club and a city they loved; the Scot after 15 years of turning Liverpool from a second division outfit into the force we know today, the German after nine years of reviving a club that had lost its way and placing it back on its perch at the summit of English, European and world football. Nine years must feel like an eternity given the demands of the modern game.

Shankly left his team in a position of strength, as Klopp will do. Liverpool had just won the FA Cup when Shankly stepped down. Klopp still has the possibility in the final four months of his reign of adding four trophies to a Liverpool collection that includes the Champions League, Premier League (after a 30-year wait), FA Cup, Club World Cup, Carabao Cup