Pep Guardiola struggled to hold back the tears when responding to question about with Jurgen Klopp, following the German’s final match as Liverpool manager.
The Manchester City boss saw hi steam seal a six Premier League title in seven years on Sunday after a 3-1 win over West Ham at the Etihad.
Klopp’s Liverpool have been the only team to disrupt that monopoly and Guardiola was full of emotion as he paid tribute to his great rival as he goes onto pastures new.
‘I will miss him a lot,’ Guardiola said. ‘Jurgen has been a really important part of my life. He’s taken me to another level as manager.
‘I think we respect each other incredibly. I have the feeling that he will be back. I just want to say thank you so much for his words.
‘But he knows perfectly that behind me there are a lot of things that this club provides and gives to me.’
On Friday Klopp had said that the Spaniard is was the ‘best manager in the world’. He added: ‘If you put any other manager in that club, they don’t win the league four times in a row. That’s down to him and his team.’
The Klopp-Guardiola rivalry was marked by their team’s unbelievable consistency of results.
The pair’s sides have amassed the four highest points totals in Premier League history and four longest winning streaks.
As City were celebrating a record fourth-straight top-flight title, the Reds were bidding an emotional farewell to the German manager following a 2-0 win against Wolves.
Jarrell Quansah had the honour of scoring the final goal of Klopp’s tenure but, in truth, the match was merely a prelude to the emotional, occasionally , send off.
Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold could not hold back the tears after embracing Jurgen Klopp following his final game in charge.
After embracing all of his players, Klopp spoke to the Anfield crowd and encouraged them to get behind incoming boss Arne Slot, who revealed on Friday that he will be replacing Klopp next season.
Klopp then carried out his trademark fist-bumps in front of the Kop as he took the adulation of the fans.
Klopp bows out having led Liverpool to third place in the Premier League, with his team finishing nine points behind champions Manchester City in his final season at the helm.
