How Pep Lijnders, Klopp's most trusted ally, became Guardiola's assistant

New York Times

2 days ago

Pep Lijnders had been carefully considering his next move.
Being sacked by Red Bull Salzburg last December, just seven months into his reign as head coach in Austria, hurt the former Liverpool assistant manager. He needed some time to get over it.
Having spent 18 years coaching abroad, he returned to live in his native Netherlands with wife Danielle and their young sons, Benjamin and Romijn. He was enjoying the benefits of a first extended break for nearly two decades — being able to do the school run, play chess with the kids, and drink coffee with his wife next to the river at their idyllic home close to the south-eastern Dutch city of Venlo.
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However, in recent months, he had started to miss the buzz of being out on the training field helping to develop players. There had been interest from clubs in Portugal, and Norwich City also got in touch during their search for a new head coach.
Lijnders gave an online presentation during a second round of discussions with the Championship club on May 20, but it wasn't the right fit for either party and they appointed Bristol City's Liam Manning instead. The situation was complicated by the fact Lijnders was effectively still on gardening leave from Salzburg with no financial agreement in place over the two remaining years on his contract.
A week later, on May 27, he received a phone call from Pep Guardiola that changed everything. The Manchester City manager explained that he wanted Lijnders to be his assistant coach.
Guardiola, who was reshuffling his coaching staff following the summer exits of Juanma Lillo, Carlos Vicens, and Inigo Dominguez, wanted Lijnders to do for him what he had done for Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool in terms of helping to design and deliver the training programme.
They chatted for half an hour about their footballing principles and what kind of responsibilities Lijnders would have at the Etihad. Guardiola was clear that he needed him on board immediately for this month's Club World Cup, which kicks off for City against Moroccan outfit Wydad AC in the U.S. city of Philadelphia on June 18. That commitment would mean needing to rearrange a family holiday.
The call wasn't a complete bolt from the blue, as Lijnders had heard from former colleagues the previous week that Guardiola had been asking about him. It meant he had already got his head around the possibility of working for City, given his close affinity with Liverpool.
The rivalry with Guardiola's City had been intense during his nine-and-a-half years of service at Anfield. Liverpool's Premier League title triumph of 2019-20 had been sandwiched by the agony of missing out to City by a solitary point in both 2018-19 and 2021-22.
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There had been a succession of titanic battles and plenty of bad blood between the clubs, intensified by City facing more than 100 charges for alleged breaches of the Premier League's financial rules.
Yet the more Lijnders thought about it from a coaching perspective, the more he was convinced that this was an opportunity he simply couldn't turn down. Klopp and Guardiola are arguably the two finest managers of the modern era and he would be able to say he had worked as an assistant for both of them.
Guardiola had done his homework. When City travelled to St Mary's to face lowly Southampton in the Premier League on May 10, he made a point of talking to former Liverpool player Adam Lallana to ask for his thoughts on Lijnders.
The City manager called Klopp on the same topic and received more glowing feedback about Lijnders' contribution to helping Liverpool win the Premier League, Champions League, Club World Cup, FA Cup and Carabao Cup (twice). Guardiola also turned to Mark Leyland, the former Liverpool analyst, who has been City's head of coaching methodology since July 2023.
By the end of that first conversation with Guardiola, Lijnders had accepted the job in principle, then it was left to his agent, Marc Kosicke, to negotiate with City's director of football, Hugo Viana.
Three days later, on May 30, personal terms were agreed on a two-year contract (one year guaranteed with the option of a further 12 months). Lijnders called Klopp to tell him that he had decided to make the move to the Etihad. Out of respect, he also rang Arne Slot.
Lijnders and the current Liverpool head coach had been in regular contact during Slot's first triumphant season in charge at Anfield. Their friendship goes back a decade to when Slot was in his early days as a coach at Cambuur and he reached out to Lijnders for advice.
The president of Liverpool's owners, Fenway Sports Group, Mike Gordon, rang Lijnders to wish him well and reassure him that Liverpool's owners would always appreciate what he had done for the club and that their relationship wouldn't change.
Last Wednesday, June 4, a settlement with Salzburg was agreed and Lijnders signed his contract with City — who paid no compensation — shortly after. He flew to Manchester on Sunday and attended a dinner with Guardiola and staff that evening before getting down to work on Monday. The move was confirmed this morning, with the squad due to fly to America on Thursday.
The idea of Lijnders being Guardiola's No 2 would have seemed preposterous when he left Liverpool at the end of the Klopp era 13 months ago on a mission to launch a managerial career of his own.
He had also attracted interest from Ajax, Besiktas, Porto and Stoke City, but decided that Salzburg was the best fit for him given their commitment to developing young talent and their desire for him to implement a less direct, more attractive style of play in his favoured 4-3-3 system. Ironically, the fact they would be taking part in the revamped Club World Cup was also part of the attraction.
It started well for him in Austria as he guided them through the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, but then their fortunes nosedived. Injuries cut deep and a series of setbacks dented confidence levels.
They were fifth in the league, 10 points behind leaders Sturm Graz, when he was sacked by Salzburg's new managing director of sport, Rouven Schroder, in mid-December. The decision was taken just a fortnight before Klopp officially joined Red Bull as their head of global soccer.
Lijnders was convinced that with the schedule allowing for more time on the training field after the winter break and key personnel returning to fitness, he would still have salvaged something significant from the season. However, he knew that if the Salzburg hierarchy had lost faith in him, then it was best they went their separate ways.
During the period of reflection back in the Netherlands that followed as he rewatched training sessions and matches, he concluded that he had asked too much of a young squad by trying to change things too quickly.
Given that his only previous stint as a head coach at Dutch club NEC Nijmegen had lasted just four months in 2017-18, Lijnders knew he needed to take stock and not rush into another challenge. After six months off, he's refreshed and ready. He didn't want to uproot his family again and they will stay in their homeland and visit Manchester regularly.
The sight of Lijnders with the City crest on his chest will take some getting used to. Next season, he will be plotting Liverpool's downfall. Some will question how he could do it given his previous role on Merseyside, but others will accept that it's business.
Liverpool are actually in the market for an assistant themselves following John Heitinga's recent departure to take over at Ajax, but they wouldn't have brought back Lijnders. The dynamic wouldn't have been right given how it works currently between Slot and his trusted No 2, Sipke Hulshoff.
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Lijnders is only 42 and still has managerial aspirations of his own. His decision to join City should not be interpreted as him giving up on being at the helm or accepting he's best suited to a supporting role. He's only signed a relatively short deal at the Etihad.
He had previously stated that he wouldn't be an assistant to anyone other than Klopp. However, he would never have imagined a scenario where he was out of work and Guardiola came calling.