Jurgen Klopp off the Napoli radar: German manager announces sabbatical

So much for that dream: despite a recent report that former Borussia Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp was "absolutely" going to be managing Napoli next season, the German manager has decided to take a year off from managing, staying in the sidelines to rest, recharge, and spend some time with his family after seven high-energy years at Dortmund.

It's a completely understandable thing to do, especially in the modern world of football. A manager is on duty year-round, because when he's not leading his side on the pitch or training field, he's planning tactics, or scouting, or meeting with players, or recruiting coaches, or meeting with national team coaches, or working with the FA on something, or, or, or, or...

The news is, however, disappointing for Napoli fans who wanted to see what Klopp could do in Naples. Despite what was a very rough season that saw Dortmund spend half the season flirting with the relegation zone before finishing seventh in the Bundesliga, Klopp had achieved some magnificent things and earned a well-deserved reputation for quality management. Even this season can be blamed more on a critical mass of transfer losses, waves of injuries, and at times plain bad luck more on anything Klopp did.

It'll be interesting to see what Klopp does while he's away from the sport, as well as finding out where he lands in a year. In the meantime, Napoli's coaching search moves on without him.