After Steven Gerrard insisted he would be happy if Jurgen Klopp was given a “lifetime deal” at Liverpool, the manager again refused to entertain talk of an extended stay.
Gerrard held his first press conference as Aston Villa manager on Thursday, and unsurprisingly many journalists asked him questions about his former club.
It is widely expected that the 41-year-old eventually take over at Anfield, with Gerrard himself revealing he wants the job in the future, though his desires of managing the Reds have been shelved now he is at Villa.
Instead, he told reporters that “if [Klopp] was to sign a lifetime deal right now, I would be very happy for them and him.”
Klopp, however, appears to be steadfast in his plan to leave the club on the expiry of his current contract in 2024, by which point he will have been in charge of Liverpool for almost nine years.
“I thought Stevie said a lot of nice things, and really smart things,” he said on Friday.
“I watched the press conference, he was incredibly good and made sure ‘let’s talk about Aston Villa and Steven Gerrard, not Liverpool and Steven Gerrard‘. Then you make that question!
“I don’t have to think about these kinds of things in the moment, thank god, because we are in the middle of this season and that’s all we are focused on.
“No other manager gets asked that often about things that will happen in two-and-a-half years, or three years or four years – at least I don’t know.
“I didn’t think about it until you asked me now, I don’t want to think about it now.
“It’s all fine how it is. It’s over when it’s over, but it’s far away from being over. So let’s focus on that.”
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