Pep Lijnders agrees personal terms to join Man City in bombshell development.
Jurgen Klopp’s former trusted lieutenant, Pep Lijnders, has agreed personal terms to join Manchester City. The ex-Liverpool coach, who was sacked by Red Bull Salzburg in December, is set to join Pep Guardiola’s backroom staff ahead of the 2025-26 season.
Lijnders left Liverpool when Klopp left the club 12 months ago, but his spell at Salzburg as a manager did not go to plan.
Lijnders won just 13 of his 29 matches in charge of Salzburg — a team that is accustomed to success after winning the Austrian Bundesliga 14 times in the previous 18 years — and left with the team sitting in fifth place in the league. Salzburg went on to finish second under Lijnders’ replacement, Thomas Letsch.
The Salzburg job was Lijnders‘ second foray into management, and his first didn’t go particularly well either: Lijnders became the manager of Dutch side NEC in January 2018 and was sacked four months later after failing to gain promotion to the Eredivisie.
Lijnders gained a brilliant reputation as an assistant to Klopp across his two spells at Liverpool, and many expected him to impress as a No.1 after years working under one of the best managers of his generation.
Lijnders’ departure from Liverpool at the end of last season was confirmed at the same time as Klopp’s, and at the time the German had high praise for the 41-year-old.
“The most influential guy in the last years at this club was definitely Pep Lijnders,” Klopp said. “The job he did is absolutely exceptional. The inspiration he is for me is absolutely exceptional.”
Coincidentally, Lijnders and Klopp were due to resume a working relationship of some kind at the start of the year, when Klopp began a new position as Head of Global Soccer at Red Bull, but a reunion with his old assistant was taken off the table by Lijnders’ sacking.
Speaking ahead of leaving Liverpool last summer, Lijnders spoke of his fondness for the club and the city: “10 years of the club and my boys don’t know anything else, they are Scousers. I owe this club everything. They don’t owe me anything, to be honest.
“It’s 10 years full of dedication. I always said I will finish with Jurgen; the moment I will not assist anyone else, that’s the moment I will go and I will manage. That was always the case. So when we spoke, it was clear for me: OK, then I go and manage, and we end this project together [that] we started.
“It’s not easy. My boys, my wife; my boys are two proper Scousers and their whole life they will be. Maybe posh ones! But still! I cannot say thank you enough to everybody involved.”
++Liverpool++