Jurgen Klopp breaks silence on Arne Slot’s impending move to Liverpool as the outgoing Anfield boss calls his job “the best job in the world” ahead of his emotional exit.

Outgoing Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has publicly backed Arne Slot, the man expected to become his successor, describing the Feyenoord boss as “a good coach and a good guy”.

Mail Sport reported this morning that the Dutch club are set to finalize a deal for their manager Slot to become Liverpool’s new boss in the next 48 hours with advanced talks between the two clubs set to continue this afternoon.

There is an expectation at the Dutch club that those talks will reach a positive conclusion after Slot publicly admitted his desire to join Liverpool on Thursday night. Informed sources believe a deal will be reached by the end of the weekend.

Slot emerged as the best candidate within the Liverpool hierarchy and now has the public backing of Klopp. “I’m not involved in the process, just to clarify that,” Klopp said. ‘(But) I really like it if he’s the one. He wants to take the job. Come on, let’s go for it. Enthusiastic.

‘I like the way your team plays football. All I hear about him as a guy is that he’s a good guy. Some people I know know him, but I don’t know him yet. Some people tell me that he is a very good guy. I like this a lot.

‘Good coach, good boy. Looking forward to the club if he is the solution or the man. I am more than happy. It’s not my place to judge these things but it all sounds great to me.

‘This is the best job in the world, the best club in the world. Obviously now I even helped by not finishing at the top, it seems. There is room for improvement. Great job, great team, fantastic people. I would take a really interesting job.

Klopp’s side all but handed over the Premier League title on Wednesday night with a humbling 2-0 defeat to rivals Everton. The manager admitted immediately afterwards that he would need a “crisis” at both Arsenal and Manchester City, who are above the Reds in the table.

The German coach said that this was the most painful defeat of his coaching career. “I don’t remember ever being as disappointed or frustrated after a game as I was after the Everton game,” Klopp added.

“I lost a lot of games in my life, but it was special that we weren’t there. You see the other two, Arsenal and City, playing very positive football and with high results. We are where we are because we played positive football and we couldn’t.

‘I blame myself one hundred percent because we weren’t in the mood. We lost almost all the decisive battles, that was really bad. In general, one or two weeks in which we did not play positive football.

“We have a chance, but it seems like we’re trying to achieve something.” I will do everything possible to try to play our football again because that was not possible in the last game. I can’t say I think they still feel us around here.

“I’m pretty sure that Arsenal and City now see it as a race between two horses, they have to say something more publicly, but I don’t expect them to lose two games. West Ham (who Liverpool will play tomorrow) want and have to show a reaction and we do it.

Liverpool will be boosted by Cody Gakpo’s return to the squad for the trip to London after the Dutchman’s wife gave birth to a baby boy this week and he missed the Everton defeat.

Klopp says he is “not ready to give up or wave the white flag” in his last four games as boss.