Man Utd, Chelsea Respond to Surprise Jurgen Klopp Claims—Report

There are at least two documented examples of Klopp turning down Manchester United.

Jürgen Klopp has attracted responses from Man Utd and Chelsea. | Marcel Engelbrecht-firo sportphoto/Robbie Jay Barratt-AMA/Visionhaus/Getty Images

Manchester United and Chelsea have reportedly rejected claims from Jürgen Klopp’s agent that the German manager attracted enquiries from the Premier League giants during the summer of 2024.

Marc Kosicke sensationally revealed earlier this week that his client was approached by at least four different teams after stepping down as Liverpool manager a year and a half ago. The national teams of England and the United States were floated as guarantees which Klopp spurned—as well as two of his former rivals.

“Even Chelsea and Manchester United inquired,” Kosicke recalled, “although Jürgen had clearly stated that he would not coach any other club in England.”

The two giants of English football have since categorically denied making any contact with Klopp, as reported by Sky Sports News. Chelsea were without a manager at the time of the German’s Liverpool exit while United were still employing Erik ten Hag. After winning that summer’s FA Cup, the divisive Dutch boss was surprisingly handed a new contract a matter of months before belatedly parting ways with the club. His successor, Ruben Amorim, was also sacked after an even worse record.

United may insist that they weren’t snubbed by Klopp in 2024, but they have been in the past.

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Jurgen Klopp Has Already Twice Turned Man Utd Down

Jürgen Klopp was once very much on the radar of Man Utd. | James Baylis/AMA/Getty Images

The story goes that Sir Alex Ferguson hand-picked David Moyes as his successor, but the former (and current) Everton coach was not the first manager Manchester United’s legendary leader approached to succeed him. In April 2013, with his 26-year reign into it’s final few weeks, the wily Scot called up the hottest coaching prospect on the continent.

Klopp had just steered Borussia Dortmund to consecutive Bundesliga titles and was gearing up for a Champions League final against Bayern Munich at Wembley Stadium. Boasting a “heavy metal” style of play as infectious as his charisma, the German’s appeal was obvious.

“We spoke,” Klopp revealed during his first season at Liverpool in 2016. “We spoke not a lot but, for me, it was a lot. It was a big honour, the whole talk, to be honest. But I could not leave Dortmund.

“You are in April and you are in the middle of the planning for next season. You have this player and this player who are coming but then you are not there anymore? That doesn’t work. Not in my life.

“I didn’t hear about a real offer [from United] but, if there was, I could not have done it. I first had to finish the job with Dortmund and then think about other things. Maybe that is not smart but that is my way. It was the same at Mainz.”

Sir Alex Ferguson could not convince Jürgen Klopp to join Man Utd. | Gareth Copley/Getty Images

If Ferguson couldn’t convince Klopp, Ed Woodward had no chance. The vilified former Manchester United executive with a background in investment banking was forever dogged by the accusation that he just didn’t understand football.

When he flew out to Dortmund the following year, 2014, to try and woo Klopp into replacing Moyes, he presented a picture that grated with the manager’s sense of what the sport is supposed to be about.

Raphael Honigstein’s excellent biography of the former Liverpool coach, Bring the Noise, claimed that Woodward compared Manchester United’s Old Trafford home to “an adult version of Disneyland,” where mythical dreams could come true.

Klopp reportedly described that pitch as “a bit unsexy” to a friend. When reflecting on the meeting years later he would say: “The people in that conversation told me [things] I didn’t like. United was that big, ‘We get all the players we want, we get him, we get him,’ and I was sitting there ... It was not my project. It was the wrong time, but on top of that it was not my project.”

As it transpires, United would never become Klopp’s project.

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