Unexpectedly, the Liverpool players were called into a team meeting at 10.30am UK time (5.30am ET) — much earlier than usual, and out of the blue. A few minutes later, Jurgen Klopp delivered the news that he would be departing at the end of the season.

The players, all of whom found out from Klopp just minutes before Liverpool revealed the news on social media via a video from the German outlining his decision, were left as shocked as anyone else. For some, like Trent Alexander-Arnold, he was the only manager they had known at senior level.

"The players didn’t have a lot of questions," Klopp said later when reflecting on that meeting, which took place a year ago today. "I spoke to them all together and then a few after that. We have a really strong bond."

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That rather underplays the reaction, though. While they trained as normal after the news had dropped, no one expected that he would be leaving. No one saw it coming.

Klopp had told the Liverpool hierarchy months earlier, in November 2023, that he intended to leave. But it was only in January 2024 that the German made his decision public and more than a handful of people knew.

Speaking to FSG's top leaders, Klopp outlined when he made the decision what he would later explain to the Liverpool fans: he was tired, and he needed a break. But what next? Such a seismic announcement was greeted, once it had finally sunk in, with one big question: who would take on the huge mantle of replacing him, and what would that look like?

A few months on, much has changed. Arne Slot's appointment has been a revelation and Liverpool is flying. Klopp is now with the Red Bull group while Pep Lijnders, who was at Salzburg, was fired (alongside Vitor Matos, who moved to Austria as his assistant) in December.

What hasn't changed, though, is the trajectory that Liverpool is on. "They will get a top manager here," Klopp said before he left, at this point well before the identity of that person had been revealed. "Changing from doubters to believers and staying believing in difficult moments... if we keep all of that, then it is a wonderful future ahead."

Slot, of course, came in, with Klopp singing his name on the final day of last season, typically deflecting the attention away from himself. And Klopp had given plenty of other clues that he was sure, even without him, that Liverpool would continue and keep winning.

"This club is stable, 100 per cent," Klopp said in his first pre-match press conference following the announcement that he was leaving, before the game against Chelsea which Conor Bradley would ignite. "Everything will be fine, I'm 100 per cent sure.

"We have to get through this, through your questions and give answers. I people I would recommend to stay calm in this department, massively."

"I told the boys it's an incredible squad," Klopp then said during his final interview before his exit. "So we didn't [win the league title] but nobody has to be overly critical about that. It's a young team, we were unlucky with injuries and how players came back.

"There's nothing about the quality of the squad. The age group is fantastic, super-experienced players, world-class players, super-talented boys, positions twice everywhere.

"Yes, space for improvement if the club or the new manager wants to do that, for sure space for improvement here and there. But the quality what is there is absolutely outstanding, [the] character is really, really good."

"I spoke to pretty much everybody on the new leadership team," Klopp added during his farewell event in the city center, which was attended by 11,000 people. "[Slot's] a really good manager."

The other question when it emerged that he was leaving — aside from who would replace Klopp — was whether Liverpool could win one of the big trophies to send the German out with a fairytale ending. The answer? Unfortunatley not.

A year on, however, they now just might at the first time of asking under Slot. In doing so, Klopp will have been proven emphatically right on three counts with his predictions about where Liverpool was heading once he left. The Reds have a top manager, the squad is going from strength to strength, and everything is going fine even without him.