Besiktas are the latest club to show an interest in Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders.
The Turkish club are searching for a new head coach after sacking Fernando Santos earlier this month, and they rate the Dutchman highly.
Lijnders will leave Liverpool after a decade of service next month when the curtain comes down on Jurgen Klopp’s reign.
The 41-year-old, who intends to pursue a managerial career of his own, is continuing to assess his options ahead of embarking on a new challenge this summer.
In February, he confirmed his intention to leave the club alongside Klopp at the end of the season. Lijnders is not a contender to take over from Klopp.
He has also been linked with Ajax, who appointed John van ’t Schip as interim coach following the departure of Maurice Steijn earlier this season.
However, Lijnders’ immediate focus remains on Liverpool and any decision about his future will only be taken once the season is over.
Lijnders initially joined Liverpool as under-16s coach in 2014 before being promoted to the first-team staff by Brendan Rodgers the following year.
He left in January 2018 for a short spell in charge of Dutch club NEC Nijmegen but returned to Merseyside five months later after Klopp offered him the assistant manager’s job and he has been responsible for overseeing the coaching programme since.
Talking about his managerial aspirations in February, Lijnders said: “I really believe that it’s a natural progression.
“I always said I will finish with Jurgen — I will not assist anyone else, that’s the moment I will go and manage. We end this project together that we started.”
GO DEEPER
Liverpool’s Portuguese department: Pep Ljinders on Diaz, Nunez and watching lots of Porto
(Rene Nijhuis/BSR Agency/Getty Images)
