Pep Lijnders eyes managerial role following Liverpool departure

Pep Lijnders believes he’s ready to become a manager when he leaves Liverpool at the end of the season.

The long-serving assistant boss, who isn’t a contender to take over from Jurgen Klopp, insists the time is right to move on and start a new chapter in his career.

“I really believe that it’s a natural progression,” he told Liverpoolfc.com.

“Probably in a few months I will sit down with my manager, now is not the time, but then I will see what kind of options I have, which club really wants me and in that moment I will make a decision.

“I owe this club everything. They don’t owe me anything. I always said I will finish with Jurgen — I will not assist anyone else, that’s the moment I will go and manage. We end this project together that we started.”

The Dutchman, 41, initially joined Liverpool as under-16s coach in 2014 before being promoted to the first-team staff by Brendan Rodgers the following year.

He left in January 2018 for a short spell in charge of NEC Nijmegen in his homeland but returned to Merseyside five months later after Klopp offered him the assistant manager’s job and he’s been responsible for overseeing the coaching programme since.

“It’s not easy leaving such a club,” he added.

“But in life I feel always you have to do the right thing and the right thing means that in the summer we said we continue and go with all we have. We make it ‘The Last Dance’, we make it like a proper ending.

“Not knowing that it would be that season but knowing that the project is coming to an end.

“It’s really nice that we can make this decision early so we leave the club with a squad full of hunger, full of talent, a lot of leadership as well, who can for the next years be really successful.”

(Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

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