The last week of January is traditionally one of the hottest during the football season. The winter transfer window is closing, and many clubs are spending significant sums in an attempt to strengthen their squads before the second part of the championship. But this time the focus was not on the players, but on the head coaches: within one day of each other, Jurgen Klopp and Xavi announced their imminent departure from their teams. Both will work until the summer, after which they will leave Liverpool and Barcelona, respectively. And now we can safely say that these events can cause tectonic changes throughout the football world.
The news of Klopp's intention to leave his post was like a bolt from the blue. Although it later became known that the specialist discussed this with management back in November 2023, and was trying to leave even earlier - in the middle of the last competitive year. But then his wife, who had managed to get used to Merseyside, dissuaded him.
One way or another, the parties have so far managed to keep this secret, and they decided to notify the public only on January 26 - two days after the draw with Fulham in the English League Cup. An almost 25-minute interview with the German appeared on the official Liverpool website, in which he explained his action in as much detail as possible and spoke very warmly about the almost nine years he spent at Anfield.
At the same time, Klopp’s case seems extremely unusual, because it was not his sporting results that pushed him to leave the team. Currently, Liverpool is in first place in the English Championship table, continues to fight for the National Cup and League Cup, and is also preparing for the Europa League playoffs. And the process of perestroika seems to be moving forward by leaps and bounds. The absence of Sadio Mane, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson did not become a serious problem for the Merseysiders, who managed to find a worthy replacement for each of them. Luis Diaz became even stronger, Darwin Nunez began to score, and Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo and Alexis Mac Allister came to court.
As the German admitted, he now feels fine, but understands that he is running out of strength to lead Liverpool. And it’s better to announce your upcoming resignation now than to be forced to leave the team during the next season. And thereby give the Reds’ management time to find a worthy replacement for him, and other employees to decide on their future. And perhaps some have already done so. After all, the separation from sports director Jörg Schmadtke was announced almost simultaneously. True, he did not wait for the summer, but decided to vacate the position in February - immediately after the end of the re-application period. And the media are talking about the intention of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold to also change the situation.
Against this background, Xavi’s resignation looks much more prosaic. Last season Barcelona became the champion of Spain, but this season they are experiencing serious problems. Yes, the blue garnets finally managed to overcome the barrier of the group stage of the Champions League, but in the national championship they still occupy only fourth place, 11 points behind the leading Girona. And this is not counting the series of sensitive defeats that the Blaugrana has suffered recently. Since mid-January, it lost heavily to Real Madrid in the final of the country's Super Cup (1:4), lost to Atlético in the Cup (2:4), and then was defeated at home by Villarreal in La Liga (3:5). Moreover, in the last match she conceded in the ninth and 12th compensated minutes.
Apparently, against the backdrop of these fiascoes, Javi lost his nerve. Even during the meeting with Villarreal, he shouted “Shame!” into the camera, thereby reacting to a canceled penalty against the opponent in the 92nd minute. And at the post-match conference, he followed Klopp’s example and announced his intention to leave Barcelona immediately after the end of the season. And, unlike Jurgen, he said a lot of unflattering words about both the club and its fans.
He described the experience of working at the Blaugrana as unpleasant and lamented the lack of respect that undermined his mental health and state of mind. According to Xavi, other coaches of the team have previously encountered such an attitude, and this is precisely the main reason that Barcelona cannot have its own Alex Ferguson. And it’s hard to argue with this, because since 2008 the team has been led by nine coaches, and none of them lasted more than four years.
Thus, in just a few days, European football has seen two seemingly similar but completely different resignations. If Klopp was tired of sports in general and decided to “recharge his batteries” by living in pleasure for at least a year, then Xavi was tired of the constant pressure and negativity in a particular team. However, one cannot exclude the possibility that the Spaniard will also need a short break. After all, at one time his star predecessors took a break - Josep Guardiola and Luis Enrique, who only returned to active work a year later.
Such high-profile events cannot but affect the state of affairs in European football. The names of many possible candidates for the position of coach of Liverpool and Barcelona immediately appeared in the press, and the departure of a coach from his post due to emotional burnout briefly became a trend. Some time later, the English media circulated the news that Arsenal helmsman Mikel Arteta was allegedly planning to follow the path of his colleagues. True, he later denied both these rumors and information about his possible move to Catalonia. And even Guardiola, who took charge of Manchester City a year after Klopp arrived in the Premier League, had to answer questions about the presence of motivation.
And although no one else has followed the example of Klopp and Xavi, serious changes are coming soon in the coaching department. After all, about a dozen potential candidates have already been named to replace the German and Spaniard, and the list is growing every day. It already includes such well-known specialists as Zinedine Zidane, Jose Mourinho, Hans-Dieter Flick, Julian Nagelsmann and Ruben Amorim, but they are not included among the favourites.
Speaking of Liverpool, Sky Sport identifies two main contenders to become Klopp's heir. And Steven Gerrard, who was actively courted for the position during his time at Glasgow Rangers, is not among them. True, everything calmed down after he failed at Aston Villa and then agreed to head the Saudi Al-Ittifaq. But another ex-star of the club is present - Xabi Alonso, as well as Roberto De Zerbi, who manages Brighton.
At the same time, it is Alonso who is given preference by the media. And it’s not just his connection to the club, but also how successful he is at Bayer. After all, in just six months he managed to turn a middle peasant in the Bundesliga into a championship leader fighting for the trophy. It was not for nothing that his other former team, Real Madrid, was interested in the Spaniard’s services, but after the contract extension with Carlo Ancelotti, this window of opportunity closed for some time.
And although scammers are already speculating with all their might on Alonso’s arrival at Liverpool, and ex-Reds captain Jamie Carragher is personally inviting him to Anfield, De Zerbi should not be written off either. In terms of coaching experience, the Italian is superior to Alonso, but he plays a different kind of football - with an abundance of horizontal passes and an emphasis on possession, which may not please both the fans and the athletes themselves. After all, under Klopp those nine years they acted in a radically different manner.
As for Barcelona, Diario Sport identifies several main contenders. They can be divided into two categories: one will include specialists with a Catalan background, the other will include those who have achieved success with Spanish teams. The first includes Thiago Motta, Giovanni van Bronkhorst and Rafael Marquez, who has already managed to get into a scandal because of his words about his readiness to replace Xavi. Many in the club considered the statement of the Barcelona B helmsman to be extremely inappropriate and capable of spoiling the atmosphere.
The second group includes Michel Sanchez and Imanol Alguacil, who have more than successfully worked for Girona and Real Sociedad, respectively. And although negotiations have allegedly already begun with the latter, his invitation is clearly not the ultimate dream. According to AS, Barca president Joao Laporta would like to see Klopp himself on the coaching bridge. But if the German remains true to his words, then this idea will not be realized in the near future.