Former professional goalkeeper Alex Manninger, renowned for being a more than capable #2 at both Arsenal and Juventus, has spoken out about his time at Liverpool.
He signed a one-year deal with the Anfield club in 2016, but didn’t expect to be making much of an impact on the field.
In fact, the Austrian confirmed that it was Jurgen Klopp’s plan to have him transition into a coach by the time his contract wound up with the Reds.
“The idea was there,” he said, as per TEAMTalk, when asked if he could have stayed as a goalkeeping coach. “But I played 20 of my 22 professional years abroad, and at the age of 40, that’s enough.
“I’m catching up with a lot of things that did not happen during my career.” It turns out that the former stopper has now returned to his days before football – carpentry.
As someone who has a soft spot for Juventus, and Italian football as a whole, I was quite looking forward to seeing Manninger step out at Anfield, but it wasn’t to be.
The Reds would eventually go on to appoint Jack Robinson instead, after the coach left his role with the FA in 2018, to join up with former Tranmere Rovers man John Achterberg.