Jurgen Klopp shows key difference to Jose Mourinho as Liverpool icon makes pledge

Elite football is evolving and Jose Mourinho is just about clinging on. The Portuguese coach, who managed Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester United in his prime, is reportedly set to join Fenerbahce after being sacked by Roma midway through last season.

Once the world’s most in-demand manager, no major European club who needed a new coach this summer seemed convinced by the potential appointment of Mourinho. Chelsea have decided against a third spell and will appoint Enzo Maresca, while Bayern Munich have hired Vincent Kompany.

Liverpool went with Arne Slot following Jurgen Klopp’s decision to step down. Manchester United, reportedly toying with the idea of sacking Erik ten Hag, will have no plans to welcome Mourinho back to Old Trafford.

Instead, the eight-time domestic league champion and two-time Champions League winner is likely to be in charge of the team who finished last season second in the Turkish league. Unlikely to threaten Europe’s elite, Mourinho’s primary ambition will be toppling Galatasaray – not fighting for the Champions League.

And it has now been that way for some time.

If Mourinho had any plans to bow out while still on top then that time has long since passed. The 61-year-old will point to his Conference League triumph with Roma in 2022 as proof that he can do it on the big stage, but he lost the Europa League final 12 months later.

Europe’s elite clubs have moved on from Mourinho’s ilk. Football’s biggest trend is possession-based coaches who combine their astute man-management skills with a general willingness to hand over power to those above their heads. Mourinho’s more conservative philosophy and all-encompassing style is, for now, a thing of the past as far as owners of those teams are concerned.

It is partially why Klopp – more progressive and innovative than Mourinho but someone who commanded and harboured vast power at Liverpool – decided to stand aside at the end of the Premier League campaign. It says huge amounts that the Reds have appointed their first head coach, as opposed to manager, in Arne Slot. Highly-rated operators Michael Edwards, Julian Ward and Richard Hughes have all been appointed to backroom roles.

Klopp has insisted that he may never manage again, instead suggesting that he might take up a position in the boardroom away from the rough-and-tumble of every-day coaching. He has shown Mourinho how to leave with his head held high.

“It’s out of the question that I’ll stop working altogether,” Klopp told the Willipedia podcast. “But I don’t see myself continuing at the same pace as before at the moment.

“A coach is a coach. And you do it with everything you have or nothing at all. That’s how I understand it. Now I’m taking my time off.

“How am I supposed to know how I’ll feel during or after the time off, and what I want to do then? I have no idea. Let’s wait and see.”

Mourinho may be a success at Fenerbahce and there should be no criticism of him for wanting to continue performing a job he clearly enjoys. But there remains a question over whether he, like Klopp has, should have walked away while he remained one of the world’s best managers.