JURGEN Klopp is a new breed of football manager. Jovial, amiable, animated, passionate and a respected coach, the Liverpool chief has earned a legion of admirers in his time in England.

Craig Hignett is the newest football manager on the block. He possesses all the sparks which make up Klopp’s personality.

Appointed Hartlepool United boss this week, Hignett has long wanted the chance to take charge on his own.

Two assistant manager spells, first at Pools and then Middlesbrough, have set him up for what lies ahead.

Always smiling, always approachable. Are Klopp and Liverpool fan Hignett, who hails from Whiston, Merseyside and was an apprentice at Anfield, cut from the same cloth?

There’s some gap to bridge just yet and it’s a long way up from sitting 90th in English football.

But principles can be the same at any level of the game. Workrate and application are two of the bedrocks of Klopp’s mantra.

He likes a smile, a joke and a wisecrack. Hignett has a reputation for similar. But, for both, there’s a time and a place.

Hignett always appeared a perfect No 2, a right-hand man, the good cop to the manager’s bad cop.

Perhaps what is seen in public isn’t the true picture of a manager.

“Tell Jurgen Klopp how he should be, tell him he’s a joker. There’s a time to be serious and a time to switch on,’’ said Hignett.

“Just because I’m a manager now I’m not going to turn into a serious person every hour of the day. My image is me, I am what I am.

“I do have a laugh and a joke, but when I’m serious I am serious. Players will find that out. People know me and what I am, there’s a time and a place for a joke.

“At training, it’s serious. The tempo has to be up there. If it’s not they will know. Match-day – ultra serious and then afterwards win, lose or draw we are ourselves and we can have a laugh and a joke …. If we win!

“I know what I have to do, I know how to do it. One thing I am known for is how I am with people and in my two jobs as a coach we have had an unbelievable team spirit.

“Some of that isn’t because I’m a jokey person, there’s more to it than that. I think I am good with people. I would say it’s my main strength – I’m good with people.’’

He dovetailed well with Colin Cooper as they formed a managerial partnership at Pools in 2013. While credited for plenty of improvements at Boro alongside Aitor Karanka, that relationship didn’t last.

Hignett has also spent time this season studying Klopp at first-hand, commentating on Liverpool games for BBC Radio Merseyside, the last of which was just last week at Leicester.

“I think Klopp will be more animated than me, but then I don’t know yet until it happens,’’ he mused. “Why can’t you be that sort of character on the sidelines, why can’t you be like that?

“OK and his team may have played badly but you see him in a press conference and he will have a laugh and a joke. Be too serious, act too dour and it can effect your team with your mood. My mood is the opposite to that, so maybe I have to be careful at times about being too relaxed!

“The way I am as a person anyway, I’m not happy and jovial all the time. I just don’t let a lot of people see me miserable and my angry side.

“I have my methods and my system and it’s up to me to get the players to understand it properly. If I have to break it down bit by bit then I will do that.

"Klopp’s brought enthusiasm, he's fun, he's a likeable fella, I've had so many Man United fans say 'I like him, I wish we had him'.

"You can't help but like him. Maybe he's not everyone's cup of tea, but there is a real charisma about him.

"What he's trying to do at Liverpool is not far off how I'd like to be myself. The intensity they play at, how they try to play, I may play slightly different to him.

"But the philosophy of how his team plays and how they like to press the opposition I will take bits of that certainly."

On pitch philosophy and ideals are one thing; off pitch something else altogether.

The club’s ways and means have altered significantly behind the scenes under chairman Gary Coxall and JPNG. "Chalk and cheese,’’ was Hignett’s take on current and past owners, after he worked under Ken Hodcroft and IOR during his previous spell.

Coxall’s enthusiasm and outlook resonated immediately with Hignett from their initial meeting at 4pm on Wednesday.

The chairman may not be from Hartlepool, or indeed the North-East. But he’s bought into the passion and feeling for the club and region and wants Hartlepool United Football Club to create its own image.

"With the chairman's vision this is the perfect fit for me, this is everything I want and I'm not going to let him down or the fans down,’’ said Hignett. "I'll give it a real good go, he knows how hard I'll work at the job as well.

"I live in the area and I want to do well and I want the club to do well.

"If we do, it will reflect well on me and the club, on everyone.

"I don't want this club to be the butt of the jokes, I want this club to be good, I want other teams thinking 'Hartlepool are coming here, we could do without that game'.

"It's a big challenge but one I know I am more than capable of doing. I don't think I'll need a lot of money do it."

"I'd love to do a really good job here, I'm not looking any further than this club.

"I am an ambitious fella, but I want to do a proper job here.

"I feel I have unfinished business here. I'm really pleased to have been given the opportunity to come back and finish what me and Colin started two years ago.

"I don't think managers are given [enough] time in general.

"My conversation with Gary was refreshing, he does have a clear vision for the club, but it's long-term so it made me feel he was here for the long haul.

"I'd like to repay that and be here for the long-term too.

"The last time, hindsight is a wonderful thing but I would never have left and that's true.’’

After being approached by Coxall after Ronnie Moore departed, he was soon installed.

"It was great, we got on straight away,’’ said Hignett. “What he wants for the club is the way I'd go about it and what I'd want to do.

"He's been brilliant, he's said 'whatever you want, whatever you need let me know and we'll see what we can do'.

"I've got no doubts, he's a really ambitious fella, he wants to make something people and the town are proud of.’’