History shows Jurgen Klopp would be wrong to swap Liverpool for the unrelenting heat of Real Madrid

Madrid have identified the Liverpool manager as the man they want to replace Santiago Solari

John Toshack finally released his autobiography last year, where he tells the story of his two spells as Real Madrid’s manager. The first was 29 years ago but he believes little has changed in the way the club thinks and operates.

There was ten minutes to go when news filtered through to the Santiago Bernabeu in February 1990 that title rivals Barcelona were slipping to an unlikely defeat in Castellon. Real were drawing against Mallorca, a result that would send Toshack’s team five points clear at the top and from there it would be difficult for Barcelona to catch them.

And yet, the Bernabeu wanted more – for Mallorca to be swatted and for Real to assert their authority in the most ruthless way. Toshack thought otherwise and decided to withdraw Emilio Butragueno for a defender.

In the dressing room afterwards, he was confronted by Real’s president – what the hell was he doing? In the subsequent press conference, most of the questions were about his conservative tactical decision. Nobody seemed to understand Toshack’s reasoning, despite his team being further ahead at the summit of the table than they were at kick off. Though Real ended up winning the league by nine points, impressions had been formed about Toshack that day and when form slipped at the start of the next season, he was quickly removed.

You can only imagine what Jurgen Klopp might think of that story: this job where even when you win, you don’t really, a place where Gareth Bale can score decisive goals in two Champions League finals without feeling the enduring love of the crowd.

It had been Klopp, of course, who was questioned fairly after Sunday’s 1-1 draw in the Merseyside derby about his own like-for-like substitutions when there were options to be bolder. Only time will tell whether he – like Toshack – was right to show restraint while others believed adventure was the quicker way to step forward.

You cannot imagine, however, Klopp ever believing Real Madrid is a career move that would suit him. The Independent revealed yesterday that he is top of a shortlist to replace Santiago Solari but Real would be wasting their time trying to recruit a manager who last May, before the club’s met in Kiev, contrasted his own position with Zinedine Zidane’s, who he acknowledged was doing a fine job but in totally different circumstances to his own. “Zidane,” he said. “Great player, great manager – an icon who is right for them in the way others might not be.”

Since Toshack's first spell, though some of the same characters have appeared twice, Real have made 29 managerial appointments – one for each season. The longest serving and most successful of those managers both had club links, with Zidane lasting two and a half seasons and Vicente del Bosque, four.

Jurgen Klopp would be unable to navigate through the testing corridors of power at Real Madrid (Getty)

This record suggests Klopp is right: it does take a special calibre of person to survive there, someone whose name carries the sort of respect that is needed for players to listen, someone whose experience enables him to navigate the corridors of power which can resemble a medieval court.

Klopp has none of this to worry about at Liverpool, a club which needed the single-mindedness of a big personality to guide it away from where it was when he took over. His record in finals since is significant because while he can lose three times at Liverpool and the season still be marked as progression (while too, Manchester City might win the Premier League title this season at Liverpool’s expense and Liverpool will still have progressed beyond anyone’s expectations), that would not be the case in Madrid where even if the team has played with some style, there is no such thing as faltering when it matters and there being another chance.

Klopp is less three-and-a-half-years into the job at Anfield and if his own track record of staying at clubs for seven years is to be judged as an absolute sign of the way he approaches things, this represents the half way point of his reign.

He had been unimpressed when Manchester United approached him with the sort of “Disneyland” presentation that is likely to be offered by Real; he has also said several times that he would not work in a country where he does not speak the language because he recognises his own limitations as well as the power of the words he uses.

A couple of weeks ago, The Independent was told that he “loves” living on Merseyside, in Formby, where he can live free, taking his dog for a walk every morning in the pinewoods without anyone troubling him. That, of course, would all change in the gated communities and heat of Madrid.