Even quadruple wouldn't convince Jurgen Klopp to perform Alex Ferguson style U-turn

KLOPP OUT: Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp during a press conference at the AXA Training Centre. Pic credit: Carl Markham/PA Wire.

Jurgen Klopp wants to end his Liverpool managerial reign on a high - by winning a historic quadruple.

And he hopes his stunning and unexpected decision to walk away from Anfield at the end of the season after nearly nine years in charge will galvanise his re-built squad rather than prove a distraction in their trophy chase.

Klopp insists even if Liverpool win the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League - or any combination of the four competitions they are still in - it will not prompt him into a U-turn on the announcement that stunned the football world.

As former Liverpool star Xabi Alonso emerged as favourite to take over, Klopp, 56, said his age and the intensity of managing the Merseyside club since October 2015 has sapped his energy levels and prompted his decision to take at least a year's break from football.

When it was pointed out that Sir Alex Ferguson reversed his initial decision to retire as Manchester United boss in 2001 at the age of 60, Klopp said: "I want [to win] everything this season but it wouldn’t change my mind if we did and nor would it change my mind if we didn't win anything. It's a decision I made independent of any kind of results."

The German does not believe the timing of his announcement at the mid-point of a season when his team are top of the table and already through to the Carabao Cup final will have a negative impact on his players, even though he knows it will come as a boost to some of Liverpool's title rivals.

"I think a lot of people from the outside who are not with us will be happy," he said. "The distraction comes from outside but to get distracted you need two parts and we will not let it happen.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp with chief executive Billy Hogan.

"If you want we can grow even more together and squeeze everything out of the season. There was before no guarantee we would win anything from this season and there is no guarantee now but we will fight 100 per cent. I cannot do the job in the future but I can do it very well right now."

Klopp, who told his players of his decision before training yesterday morning, explained that after 24 years as a manager, and with over 1,000 games under his belt at Mainz, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, he can't keep going "again and again and again."

"We are not rabbits any more and we don't jump as high as we did," he said. "I have been doing this [managing] for nearly 25 years and when you have the start I had [at Mainz] it only becomes possible to arrive at Liverpool because you invest everything you have.

"With all the responsibility you have at this club, especially with the team we have now, you have to be at the top of your game and when I cannot be that I have to tell people.

"You have to be the best version of yourself. I cannot do it on three wheels, it is not allowed, and I have never wanted to be a passenger.

"My managerial skills are based on energy and emotion and that takes all of you and needs all of you and I am who I am, and where I am, because of how I am, with all the good and bad things, and if I cannot do it any more, stop it.

"This was not my idea when I signed a new contract. I was 100 per cent convinced in that moment we would go until 2026. I underestimated because my energy level was endless and now it is not.

"It is just the right thing to do and I am convinced it is the right moment. I don't know how normal life is so I have to find out. And the club needs time to plan the future while we are sorting the present."

Klopp re-assured Liverpool fans he will never manage another English club but did not rule out a return to the game in the future amid suggestions that with his vast experience he could be a contender to manage the German international team.

"Whatever will happen in the future I don’t know now," he said. "But [there will be] no club, no country, for the next year and no English club ever, I can promise that even if I have nothing to eat!"

He says he will leave behind a good team for his successor. "This team is set up for the future. Whoever comes in has the chance to play really good football. There is a wonderful future ahead and I don’t want to be the passenger disturbing that."

Alonso, a Champions League and FA Cup winner with Liverpool, has been been installed as odds-on favourite to take over after a stunning start to his managerial career with Bayer Leverkusen, who are unbeaten in the Bundesliga this season and four points clear of Bayern Munich as well as through to the Europa League knock-out stages.

The Spaniard, who also played for Real Madrid and Bayern Munich and who was a World Cup and Euro winner for his country, said he was surprised by Klopp's announcement and played his cards close to this chest, insisting he is happy with Leverkusen - for now at least.

Klopp's departure will inevitably raise question marks over Mo Salah's future with clubs in the Saudi Arabia Pro League set to renew their interest in the Egyptian striker this summer.

Liverpool are not only searching for a new manager but also a sporting director and coaching staff.

Klopp's assistant managers Pep Lijnders and Peter Krawietz, as well as elite development coach Vitor Matos, will also leave this summer. And sporting director Jorg Schmadtke who was only appointed last summer, will leave at the end of this month.