Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp jokes: 'It would have been smart to leave Liverpool in the summer'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 22 October 2020

Jurgen Klopp: 'It would have been smart to leave Liverpool'

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp jokes that "a really smart person" would have left Anfield after winning the Premier League title last season.

Jurgen Klopp has joked that leaving Liverpool at the end of last season would have been a "really smart" move to make.

The German coach wrote his name in Anfield folklore by guiding the Reds to their first top-flight title in 30 years last time out, a year on from lifting the Champions League.

Liverpool have made a shaky start to 2020-21, however, having lost three of their nine matches in all competitions, including a humiliating 7-2 league defeat at Aston Villa.

Klopp has also had to contend with defender Virgil van Dijk being ruled out for the rest of the season, and the 53-year-old quipped that he may have been better off quitting in July.

"If I would have been a really smart person I would have left in the summer!" he told BT Sport. "It would have been really positive what people would have said, but unfortunately I'm not that smart! I don't know, it's really not about me.

"When I used that phrase ["it doesn't matter what people say about you when you arrive, but what they say when you leave"] it was specifically about the Borussia Dortmund farewell because people were positive when I arrived there and they were positive when I left there in the right manner.

"So that's all good and if that happens, whenever it will be, I will be fine with that. What we can win between now and then, I have no idea, but I can promise we will try everything."

Liverpool got back to winning ways on Wednesday evening with a 1-0 win at Ajax in their opening Champions League group match.