Jurgen Klopp has revealed he held talks with Liverpool successor Arne Slot.
Slot’s reign in the Anfield hot seat will begin on Saturday and was confirmed just 24 hours after being announced by the German during his own farewell.
A deal to install the ex-Feyenoord head coach was tied up late last month, with Klopp announcing his intention to leave the Reds at the end of January.
Speaking at Tuesday’s event in his honour at the M&S Bank Arena, the 56-year-old told fans about productive discussions he already held with Slot.
“He is a good guy,” said Klopp.
“We had a really good talk. A really good talk.
“I spoke to pretty much everybody in the leadership team [coming in].
“He is a good manager, a really good manager.”
Klopp, who broke down in tears when serenaded by fans, also hinted at a surprise return if Liverpool are retrospectively awarded Premier League titles.
Manchester City pipped his side on two occasions in 2018/19 and 2021/22 but face 115 charges related to breaking Profit and Sustainability regulations.
When asked in a Q&A by comedian John Bishop about the potential change in the honour roll, Klopp interjected: “If you organise a bus parade, I’m in!
“How long it takes I don’t care.”
Klopp also issued a staunch defence of owners Fenway Sports Group with a veiled reference to Chelsea’s recent decision to sack Mauricio Pochettino.
He added: “Can you imagine LFC as the club with unlimited money?
“Imagine Kylian Mbappe came here. Imagine (Jude) Bellingham came here, (Erling) Haaland. It is not us, it just does not fit.
“We won what we won and we did it the Liverpool way. We had hard conversations and other clubs didn’t do that in the same time.
“We built two new stands, a new training ground, we bought Melwood back – the dumbest idea I ever heard was that we sold it in the first place.
“The owners do what owners do. Surprise! The owners want to earn money.
“Sorry to tell you that. It’s not like they earn money on a daily basis: they invest something and that’s how the whole world goes.
“We should be really happy that we have these owners and not guys who bought London clubs and other stuff.
“I wouldn’t have survived a year at Liverpool (with them in charge). ‘Great development but not good enough, sack him!’ A year later: ‘Sack him’.
“Then finally they play football where people think they might be back and they sack the manager anyway.
“People always think the grass is greener but we have owners who really feel responsible for the club and work really hard as well to be successful.
“I felt supported. We did it as good as we could have done and I’m fine with it.”