Jürgen Klopp's move to Red Bull seems surprising, nevertheless it shouldn't be

As Liverpool manager, Jürgen Klopp didn't like long meetings. Instead of sitting around pondering the last big decision, he commonly had vital conversations within the training ground canteen while eating his lunch.

Klopp was anything but formal, but Mike Gordon – the president of Liverpool's owner Fenway Sports Group, a person who also operates with the easy-going confidence you normally get from a dot-com entrepreneur – put the German on the identical level as he did Company leader. According to Gordon, he was “someone you would choose to run your company,” as he told Raphael Honigstein in his book “Bring the Noise.”

Klopp's latest role as Red Bull's global head of football, which he begins early next yr, potentially offers such overarching responsibility. As Red Bull explained in a press release, the day-to-day management of the five clubs that Red Bull owns, sponsors or has a minority stake in is not going to be his concern, but he’ll assist sporting directors, scouting departments and coaches and make sure that Red Bull “ “Philosophy” pervades his every interest.

The decision, which got here suddenly – nine years and at some point after his arrival at Liverpool – might at first glance be surprising given how exhausted Klopp appeared when he left Anfield in May. At the time, he said he had run out of energy and needed a whole break from football management.

He left Borussia Dortmund at the top of the 2014/15 season with the same message, before quickly landing on Merseyside after a summer spent largely playing tennis.

Klopp finds it difficult to sit down still for long periods of time, but his latest job at Red Bull invites a slower, less stressful route back to the sport he loves – and is in all likelihood a precursor to his job with the German national team which has been long awaited reports within the country suspect that there may be an exit clause in his contract.

Gordon commented on Klopp's abilities in 2017 and within the years that followed, as Liverpool became more successful, his power grew. This meant that the support network that had also contributed to Liverpool's rise was dismantled. Klopp didn’t run Liverpool because the important thing financial decisions were still made by Gordon, yet he was the general public face of a multinational company and the football department was given to him. This explains why Liverpool now employs a head coach as a substitute of a manager and the club's sporting director makes strategic and personnel decisions. It could be good to listen to from Klopp if he thinks playing an excessive amount of has contributed an excessive amount of to his burnout.

Maybe appearing at Red Bull will give him the chance to grasp a world he's interested in. There were talks last yr that he would enroll in an athletic director course, which his representatives neither confirmed nor denied. Unlike Liverpool, he’ll give you the option to do his job without the pressure of team preparation, games and press conferences. In an Instagram post on Tuesday, he suggested that this treadmill has kept him from learning as much as he would have liked. If he takes over the leadership of Germany from here, he will definitely higher understand the responsibility that comes with the assorted leadership positions.

Klopp shouldn’t be the primary former Liverpool coach to win this title at Red Bull. In 2012, after Gerard Houllier was forced to retire resulting from his deteriorating health, he met with the corporate's founder, Dietrich Mateschitz, who arrived for a gathering in Austria on a motorbike and wearing jeans.

How influential Houllier became depends upon the impression of who you check with. While he later claimed that he played a number one role within the organization's try and bring Sadio Mane into its ranks from Metz in 2012, those closer to the leadership suggest that his responsibilities were more that of an envoy resembled: appearing in numerous countries and shaking hands with partners and sometimes whispering advice.

Will Klopp's tasks be as comprehensive as they could sound? He is definitely useful for the Red Bull brand, which has needed a touch of legitimacy since its investment in football in 2005.

At the beginning of his stint, Houllier was already eight years away from Liverpool, while the Red Bull group had yet to provide a team talented enough to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League. Although the Leipzig club has made it to this round of the competition in seven of the last eight seasons, the story of a team being promoted from the regional divisions shouldn’t be exactly popular in Germany, where the principles favor fan representation and significant external investment is treated with suspicion.

In Dortmund and Liverpool, Klopp took advantage of the authenticity of each clubs' fan bases and sometimes took digs at the substitute elements of rivals and other clubs. Had he been Dortmund's coach in 2016 once they faced newly promoted RB Leipzig within the Bundesliga for the primary time, it might have been interesting to listen to his opinion on the actions of Dortmund's fans, who boycotted the sport in protest against their opponents' ownership model.

“Dortmund makes money, but we do it to play football,” said Jan-Henrik Gruszecki, one in all the organizers of the protest The Guardian. “But Leipzig plays football to sell a product and a lifestyle. That’s the difference.”

Klopp may due to this fact have damaged his popularity by allying with the carbonated drinks manufacturer – the other of what he once represented. Perhaps this depends upon how visible he’s in Red Bull, especially in Germany.

Back in England, the corporate holds a minority stake in Leeds United, having taken over the club's shirt sponsorship. “The ambition to bring Leeds United back to the Premier League and establish themselves in the best football league in the world suits Red Bull very well,” said Oliver Mintzlaff in May. Mintzlaff, CEO of Red Bull Corporate Projects, played a very important role in Klopp's appointment.

Klopp hinted upon his departure from Liverpool that very same month that he would never manage a Premier League club again. But it's not too hard to assume Leeds back in the highest flight soon, and if that happens – and Red Bull provides its technical support as expected – it’ll be fascinating to see where Klopp suits in if he stays in that position . Could he ultimately help plot Liverpool's demise come matchday?

Many were immediately pleased on the suggestion that one in all his first tasks is perhaps to sack Pep Lijnders, his former assistant at Liverpool whose Red Bull Salzburg team were beaten in consecutive games by Brest and Sturm Graz last week.

There isn’t any plan to sack the Dutch coach, but Klopp doesn't officially start at Red Bull until January. Considering how close they were to Liverpool and the way Lijnders was entrusted with leading training sessions, it seems unthinkable that Klopp, if asked, would suggest a change. Instead, Klopp's arrival within the Red Bull stable definitely increases his possibilities of survival.

For now, Klopp is faraway from the grind of day-to-day management and this role appears to balance involvement with the elite through a brand new challenge, but without the pressure and control that comes with being a manager. Whether Klopp can resist the hype surrounding the latter in the long run stays to be seen.