Former England manager Glenn Hoddle has said it’s “very shrewd” of Jurgen Klopp “for his health and his family” to leave Liverpool at the end of the season.
Hoddle told Sky News that football management “takes its toll” and the German has “earned the right” to quit on his terms.
Klopp, 56, announced on Friday that he will step down as Liverpool manager at the end of the season, his eighth one since joining in October 2015.
He was, he said in a statement, “running out of energy,” and had realised he couldn’t do the job “again and again and again and again”.
Hoddle called it “a very shrewd move from him, for his health”.
He added: “It takes a lot when things are going well, to say ‘I’ve got to take a step back and do the right thing for my health’… the pressure that he’s under, and for him to look inside himself, and think ‘I’m running out of energy’… it’s a good decision for his health and his family.”
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In Klopp’s time in charge, Liverpool has won the UEFA Champions League, Premier League, FIFA Club World Cup, FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Super Cup, and the FA Community Shield.
But Hoddle said a bulging trophy cabinet won’t have insulated him from the stress of management and the demands on a manager’s time.
Hoddle said: “Everything goes through the manager, the decisions that have got to be made, every single decision in the end, [even though] you get a good team around you.”
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Hoddle, who managed a host of clubs including Tottenham, Chelsea and Southampton in the Premier League, after a glittering playing career, described management as relentless.
He said: “When I look back at my management [career] – and every manager will say the same – you think you’re with your family, you think you’re with your friends, you think you’ve switched your mind off, but you never do.
“It’s the job where you cannot switch your mind off, it’s there every minute of the day, and I think that takes its toll and I think that’s what’s happened with Jurgen.”
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He had some positive news for shocked Reds fans, saying he believed Klopp “could go back to Liverpool if he wants to, he’s done such a wonderful job there and he’ll be fired up ready to go again.”
Liverpool, one of England’s most successful clubs, has its own special stress, Hoddle added.
“Liverpool is a massive, massive club and it’s an emotional club, with… the history.”
