Jurgen Klopp announces shock decision to LEAVE Liverpool at end of the season

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has announced his decision to leave the club at the end of the season.

In a shock statement made to the Reds' official channels on Friday morning, the 56-year-old German revealed he made his decision late last year and informed the club in November.

Having joined in November 2015, Klopp guided Liverpool to a first Premier League title in 30 years as well as winning the Champions League, Club World Cup, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.

When explaining his decision, he stated that he was simply "running out of energy".

Klopp told the Liverpool website: “I can understand that it’s a shock for a lot of people in this moment, when you hear it for the first time, but obviously I can explain it – or at least try to explain it.

“I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I love everything. But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take.

“It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.

“After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth – and that is the truth.”

Liverpool have also announced the departure of assistant managers Pepijn Lijnders and Peter Krawietz plus development coach Vitor Matos in the summer, highlighting the desire of Dutch coach Lijnders to pursue his own career as a manager.

Klopp will lead his team out in the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea next month while silverware is still on offer in all four competitions the league leaders are involved in.

The club's owners, Fenway Sports Group, have stated their desire to maintain a "business as usual" approach on the pitch until the campaign ends while working behind the scenes to "adapt to a future without Jurgen".

And Klopp has described his own surprise at his decision to call it a day at Anfield.

He continued: “I told the club already in November. I have to explain a little bit that maybe the job I do people see from the outside, I’m on the touchline and in training sessions and stuff like this, but the majority of all the things happen around these kind of things. That means a season starts and you plan pretty much the next season already.

“When we sat there together talking about potential signings, the next summer camp and can we go wherever, the thought came up, ‘I am not sure I am here then anymore’ and I was surprised myself by that. I obviously start thinking about it.

“It didn’t start [then], but of course last season was kind of a super-difficult season and there were moments when at other clubs probably the decision would have been, ‘Come on, thank you very much for everything but probably we should split here, or end it here’. That didn’t happen here, obviously.

“For me it was super, super, super-important that I can help to bring this team back onto the rails. It was all I was thinking about. When I realised pretty early that happened, it’s a really good team with massive potential and a super age group, super characters and all that, then I could start thinking about myself again and that was the outcome. It is not what I want to [do], it is just what I think is 100 per cent right.”