Seven brilliant (and terrible) managers that have rejected the Liverpool job

Ruben Amorim is reportedly about to eschew the manager’s role at Liverpool in favour of talks with West Ham according to reports.

Amorim was said to be the front-runner to succeed Jurgen Klopp after Xabi Alonso turned down the opportunity to manage his former club.

But the Sporting Lisbon boss is now reportedly high on West Ham’s target list as they scout for potential replacements for David Moyes.

Amorim wouldn’t be the first big-name coach to reject the chance to sit in Liverpool’s dugout. We’ve taken a closer look at seven managers who reportedly turned the club down.

Xabi Alonso

Alonso rebuffed Liverpool’s interest in favour of staying put at Bayer Leverkusen after being strongly linked with the vacancy at Anfield in March 2024.

The legendary former Reds midfielder briefed the media that he intends to remain in Germany for at least one more season, leaving both Liverpool and Bayern Munich to look elsewhere to fill their vacancies in the summer.

Jose Mourinho

The line out of Liverpool has always been that Rafael Benitez was their first choice in the summer of 2004, and that they’d turned down Mourinho to appoint the Spaniard.

“I think the feeling was that Jose Mourinho couldn’t be a Liverpool manager, possibly because of the way he conducted himself at times,” Jamie Carragher recalled years later.

“I think even that run down the line, even though it was great, at Old Trafford, the feeling was at the club and maybe from certain players that it wasn’t really the Liverpool way of doing things.”

Mourinho remembers things differently.

“I was invited to meet Liverpool’s representatives on the eve of Porto’s Champions League game at Manchester United in March,” he said, having taken the Chelsea job, in 2004.

“But I was preparing for a crucial match and wasn’t prepared to leave the hotel to meet another club.

Didier Deschamps

The former France captain’s stock as a coach was rising when Benitez’s time at Anfield was up. He’d led Monaco to the Champions League final, losing to Mourinho’s Porto, in 2004 and six years later delivered his first Ligue 1 title at Marseille.

“Yes, it’s true,” Deschamps responded when asked whether Liverpool had approached him.

“And I was very proud that a club like Liverpool were interested in me. But the timing was not good. I was engaged with Marseille, the players and the fans, and I could not leave them two days before the restart [of pre‑season].

“I was extremely pleased and happy [with Liverpool’s approach] but I decided to stay and continue my adventure with Marseille.”

He ended up staying put at Marseille until 2012 when he left to take the France job. He’s now into his 12th year in charge of Les Bleus, a stint that’s seen him lead them to back-to-back World Cup finals.

Frank De Boer

When Kenny Dalglish’s time was up in 2012, De Boer was seen as a promising young tactician at Ajax, having led them to successive Eredivisie titles.

“I would love to manage here [Britain],” De Boer revealed.

“But the project has to be right. I told Liverpool I was honoured but I was only one year in at Ajax, it was too soon. I needed to achieve more, and I did.”

The former Netherlands international did eventually arrive in the Premier League. He lasted just 77 days at Crystal Palace and was sacked after four successive defeats that yielded no goals – a stint that resulted in Jose Mourinho dubbing him the ‘worst manager in the history of the Premier League’.

Ouch. Bullet dodged.

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Carlo Ancelotti

One to take with a pinch of salt, perhaps, given that Ancelotti himself has downplayed the reports… and that the source of the rumour is Harry Redknapp.

“I have heard from good sources that he [Ancelotti] was offered the Liverpool job,” Redknapp told talkSPORT after Klopp was appointed in 2015.

“I don’t think [he wanted it]. They spoke to him at some stage.”

Jurgen Klopp

It’s forgotten now, after his eight and a half glorious years at the helm, but Klopp might have arrived at Anfield three years earlier than he did.

Sky Sports reported that he rejected the chance to become Dalglish’s successor in 2012, fresh from leading Borussia Dortmund to back-to-back Bundesliga titles.

“I have been made aware of interest from England, and it is an honour to be linked with big clubs in the Premier League,” Klopp told reporters in Germany.

“But I have a contract with Dortmund until 2016 and am going nowhere. I love it here and have no intention of changing clubs.”

A chapter to give fans hope that the stars might well align with Alonso further down the line.

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Louis van Gaal

Before appointing Brendan Rodgers, Liverpool held talks with Louis van Gaal. He was free at the time, having left Bayern Munich following a spectacular falling-out with then-club president Uli Hoeness.

“Yes, I spoke to Liverpool but that is not so interesting anymore,” the acerbic Dutchman told reporters during his time as Manchester United manager.

“Last week I was asked the same about Tottenham. I have spoken to a lot of clubs. It’s not so interesting – it’s in the past. It’s not good for Liverpool, Tottenham or me to re-open things that are in the past.

“Yes, it was very pleasing. I could have worked every year but I take sabbaticals to please my wife, my kids and my grandchildren. But I was always in the circumstances to manage a club – I’m a lucky guy.”

Van Gaal ended up taking the Netherlands job instead that summer, eventually arriving in the Premier League with United two years later.