Graham Potter would be a great fit for Liverpool, says Bruce Grobbelaar (Picture: Getty)
Liverpool hero Bruce Grobbelaar has picked out Graham Potter as his preferred managerial choice to take over the reins from Jurgen Klopp at the end of the season.
Klopp announced his plan to step down as Liverpool head coach last week, with the 56-year-old citing a lack of ‘energy’ as one of the key reasons behind his shock decision.
The German will, though, be determined to bow out on a high in the summer as he looks to add to the magnificent tally of six major trophies since arriving on Merseyside back in 2015.
The seemingly impossible job to find a suitable replacement is now underway and ex-Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso finds himself as the bookmakers’ favourite to take charge when Klopp departs.
Alonso has enjoyed a phenomenal start to his managerial career at Bayer Leverkusen, with the side unbeaten at the top of the Bundesliga table, and the Spaniard was forced to play down the speculation linking him with Liverpool while talking to the media last Friday.
However, former Liverpool goalkeeper Grobbelaar believes Potter would be a better fit for the Reds, despite the manager’s disappointing six-month spell in charge of Chelsea.
‘We were chatting amongst ourselves, the former players, putting through some names and Xabi Alonso came up all the time,’ Grobbelaar told Virgin Media Sport.
Klopp will hope to bow out on a high at the end of the season (Picture: Getty)
‘But if you have a look at which manager has actually produced youngsters from the academy into the first-team and then them going on and selling them and there is one man that comes to mind and that’s Graham Potter.
‘When he was at Brighton, what he did there, he set up the whole Brighton situation and how Brighton are today.
‘He’s out of work now, he’s been out for a year, he could be one to look at because he uses the youngsters as Jurgen Klopp has used the youngsters in the Liverpool side now because of injury. He can have that same platform.
‘I know he would bring his old team because the whole coaching team at Liverpool is going to be changed, so it leaves a nice moving in and out for the next manager.’
Grobbelaar admires the job Potter did at Brighton (Picture: Getty)
Chelsea dropped to 11th in the table after 11 defeats in 31 games under Potter’s tutelage, but Grobbelaar is confident the Englishman would be welcomed with open arms at Anfield.
‘Liverpool and Chelsea are two different entities, two different sides, different dynamic, different mentality,’ Zimbabwean added.
‘Liverpool is a family club and once you are in this family they treat you very nicely and royally.
‘If he comes in here he would be welcomed like any other manager like any other manager that has managed Liverpool and he would be looked after.’
Leverkusen boss Alonso is the bookies’ favourite to succeed Klopp (Picture: Getty)
Dietmar Hamann, a Champions League winner with Liverpool in 2005, feels Alonso is the outstanding candidate to succeed Klopp, though hopes to see his former team-mate stay on at Leverkusen for another season.
‘Well, the story coming out of Leverkusen, he extended his contract earlier in the season but I’m sure they’ve got an agreement so that if he wants to leave in the summer, he can go,’ Hamann told The Stand with Eamon Dunphy podcast.
‘As a football romantic, I would love to see him do another season at Leverkusen.
‘But the problem might be, can they keep the team together? They’ve got some outstanding players and I think one or two will leave which obviously will harm their chances next season.
‘I think if Liverpool come calling, I think it’s very hard to turn down, even though he follows in Klopp’s footsteps. But the thing is, sometimes the big clubs, they only come once.
‘If somebody comes in in the summer and does well, the job might not be on offer for five or six years, or maybe nine years if they find another Klopp. So, I think if Liverpool come calling, I think he’ll take it.’
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