In a startling opinion, former Celtic midfielder Paul Slane has named Ange Postecoglou as the successor to Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool. The Reds have endured a tough start to their new season, after winning just 3 of their 8 games in all competitions so far. However, the club has reiterated that they have no plans to axe Klopp from his position as they full trust the German to turn things around.
But Slane feels once Klopp is done at Merseyside, Postecoglou should be the one to lead the club into new era. Klopp penned a contract extension at Liverpool earlier this year which will keep him at the helm until the summer of 2026. While things have been a bit tragic since that extension, Klopp has himself stated that he needs to “reinvent” his team to overcome the difficulties.
Slane explains Postecoglou as his pick for the Liverpool job
Jurgen Klopp has taken Liverpool to new heights since being appointed as the manager in 2015. The former Dortmund manager has completed the set of trophies at Anfield, steering the Reds to their first league title in 30 years, as well as Champions League, Super Cup, Club World Cup, FA Cup and League Cup titles over the course of seven seasons.
While there are no talks of Klopp leaving anytime soon, Slane has insisted that Postecoglou is the man to take Liverpool forward whenever the German decides to quit Anfield. While speaking on Grosvenor Sport, he said:
“I think [Ange] Postecoglou’s going to be the next Liverpool manager, I really do. I think he’ll be the next Liverpool manager when Jurgen Klopp decides to go or Liverpool decide to part with him. Who else takes the Liverpool job after Klopp? At times in this season’s Champions League game against Real Madrid, the European champions, Celtic were unbelievable, so I think Ange Postecoglou is good enough to be the next Liverpool manager. If people think Graham Potter is better than Postecoglou, and he can get the Chelsea job, then they’re wrong.
“Sadly I think Postecoglou will be too good to stick around at Celtic for the next four or five years. He’ll want the Premier League, the top teams, the money… I think Ange will want to go and face off against the world’s top managers week-in, week-out. So I think it’ll be hard for him to stay with Celtic. But come the first game of next season, I think he’ll still be managing Celtic.”
Ange Postecoglou was appointed as the Celtic manager last summer, taking over the reigns from Neil Lennon after the club missed out on the Scottish Premiership to Rangers for the first time in a decade. Postecoglou, in the process became the first ever Australian manager to coach a major European club. However, fun was poked at him after his hiring as Celtic were even labelled as ‘doomed’ to appoint the 57-year-old.
But Postecoglou proved his haters wrong, after reclaiming the Scottish Premiership in his debut season from bitter rivals Rangers, also adding the Scottish League Cup. This season as well, he has his team sitting atop of the table, with 6 wins from 7 league games so far. Postecoglou has been lauded for his playing style, which has impressed the Celtic fans as well as the footballing fraternity.
However, at the moment Postecoglou doesn’t seem interested in leaving the Hoops after just one season, neither does Klopp who still has four more years on his contract. But it won’t be too long we see Postecoglou claiming a bigger job across Europe’s top five leagues, given the progress he has shown with the Scottish giants.