The German claimed he was “running out of energy”. After the shock had subsided attention immediately switched to sending Klopp off in the best possible fashion. Riding into the sunset with more silverware to his name, departing in a blaze of glory.

Another Premier League title perhaps? More European glory too? It was the dream scenario.

In the cold morning after Klopp lost his unbeaten record at Goodison Park, the reality couldn’t be more different. The announcement of Klopp’s departure was always going to go one of two ways. A club that so often draw on emotion had the chance to use it as fuel and build on their five point lead at the top of the table.

The manager had increasingly begun to back youth in an effort to leave the Reds in a promising position. March is where the first big dent took place – a defeat at Old Trafford in the FA Cup. A quadruple had become a treble, but within five April days it came close to ending.

Anfield defeats are rare but the Reds fell behind early on to an Eberechi Eze goal and failed to take their chances, opening the door for long-time adversaries City, who walked straight through to take control of the title race. Days later, again at their Anfield fortress, Atalanta came and breached their defences. All eyes were on a Liverpool-Bayer Leverkusen final in Dublin, but the Italians had other ideas.

Klopp stood bemused as his backline faltered, allowing the Serie A outfit to score three times. It gave the Reds a mammoth task in the second-leg of their quarter-final. One they ultimately couldn’t overcome, winning 1-0 on the night, but ultimately going out 3-1 on aggregate.

All eyes then were fixed on the league and an unlikely City slip up. Instead, as Pep Guardiola’s side watched on, it was Liverpool who slipped. As final nails in the coffin go, this was a hammer blow.

Klopp could only apologise to the fans, who were always destined to idolise him regardless of how the final months of his tenure played out. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but just how might’ve Liverpool’s season looked had they kept Klopp’s news under wraps. Very little stays silent nowadays and the club no doubt wanted to avoid press conferences being dominated by talk of a possible exit by the German if it ever got out.

For the whole squad, he is all they’ve known and even leading lights suggested they may be reviewing their options. Virgil van Dijk had been quizzed on whether he saw himself featuring in the next era. “That’s a big question.

I don’t know,” he replied. He latter clarified those comments, insisting he was “100% committed” to the club. Nevertheless, the noise around the squad was an intangible factor, but one that is now being pointed at with Liverpool having to settle for one piece of silverware, unless there’s a miracle, in Klopp’s final season.

He also added: “I am not saying it is his fault, but the timing of when that came out, I think that will definitely have an effect on some of those players. I think Jurgen Klopp is almost like a father figure to a lot of those players, and for them players to go from Jurgen Klopp to whoever the next manager is going to be, it is going to be different. “It is not going to be the same as under Jurgen Klopp.

Players will find that difficult and we see it throughout football. I think some of those players will want a new challenge and I think Liverpool over the next two or three years will be in a transition period.”