Last week, Jurgen Klopp described the Liverpool post as ‘the biggest challenge in world football’. The legendary Rudi Gutendorf, who managed the Rwanda national team after the 1994 genocide, may have scoffed at his countryman’s remark, but the German wasn’t joking around.

The Anfield gig has a simple mission objective but nonetheless a largely unrealistic one; qualify for Champions League football within three years without buying Champions League players. If it is not the toughest job in world football it is, at the very least, the toughest job in the Premier League – a job requiring the difference in quality between Liverpool and the rest of the top four be made up almost exclusively by the brilliance of the man in the dugout.

Brendan Rodgers is a good manager who did a good job at Liverpool with good players. But ‘good’ wasn’t enough to bridge the gap which is why the Reds have now turned to Klopp; a manager they hope can make the club greater than the sum of all its parts.

It’s not necessarily a question of finance. Liverpool spent £291.5million during Rodgers’ three-year reign. Working on the assumption most Champions League players, such as Arsenal duo Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, cost between £30million and £45million, the Reds could have hypothetically purchased anywhere between six and ten over the last three campaigns.

But Liverpool’s owners won’t allow the risk of Champions League wages without guaranteed Champions League football, whilst Champions League players won’t take the risk of joining a club who have spent five of the last six seasons stuck outside Europe’s top competition without added financial incentive.

Meanwhile, nine times out of ten, Liverpool will miss out on a target if their interest is matched by Arsenal, Chelsea, City or United and will likely have to surrender any players of their own who are ready for a higher level, like Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling, when a bigger club comes along.

It’s the self-perpetuating paradox at the heart of Rodgers’ questionable record in the transfer market, that left Liverpool in a state of ‘constant rebuilding’ as they churned through players on the cusp of Europe’s elite, such as Mario Balotelli and Lazar Markovic. Nonetheless, it is the compromise Klopp will have to somehow outmanoeuvre if he’s to make Liverpool a top four club once again.

Of course, there are other clubs in similar boats. Tottenham Hotspur are working under arguably tougher constraints yet expect Mauricio Pochettino to be challenging for Champions League qualification every year. Like Klopp, the Argentine will have to bridge the gap with astute recruitment and his own ingenuity.

But the difference is one of expectation. Whilst Spurs hope to qualify for Champions League football under Pochettino, Liverpool fans will expect it of Klopp and a club that dominated European football throughout the 1980s. They feel top four inclusion is part of the Reds’ destiny and where they rightfully belong, as Rodgers eventually found out to his own peril.

No doubt, Klopp is the right man for the job, having thrived on familiar territory at Westfalenstadion. He took Dortmund from the mid-table mediocrity and the brink of financial implosion to consecutive Bundesliga titles and the 2013 Champions League final. He did it all without ever spending more than £20million on a single player – in fact, his biggest purchase before the CL final was £12million man Marco Reus – by developing young talent and imposing his philosophy onto other teams.

But once again, there are intrinsic differences to consider. The Bundesliga has one primary predator – Bayern Munich – but the Premier League has four. That’s three more clubs with better players and better pulling power in the transfer market. Likewise, whilst the German top flight is eternally crying out for a competitor to Bayern, the Premier League doesn’t have room for five major forces, which is why Liverpool have been increasingly marginalised since the rise of Manchester City. Klopp can only achieve Champions League qualification by obliterating one it’s long-standing incumbents first and chaotic seasons like 2013/14 don’t come around too often.

Does that make Liverpool the toughest job in the Premier League? Well, spare a thought for Steve McClaren, the inheritor of a meekly assembled squad and incredibly hostile fan base up at Newcastle. But in terms of the gap between resource and expectation, which the manager’s talent will somehow have to fill, there is certainly no bigger ask in the English top flight.

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