It seems Liverpool has successfully pulled the wool over all our eyes. The English club are in the final stages of finalizing a deal with current Feyenoord manager Arne Slot to replace Jürgen Klopp as Liverpool’s manager at the end of the season. They already have an agreement with Feyenoord that will cost them over £9m.
When Jürgen first announced that he would be leaving the club at the end of the season in January, the favorite for his position was Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso. Sporting Lisbon’s manager Ruben Amorim was also reportedly on the shortlist to replace the German. After Xabi Alonso announced that he would be staying at Bayer Leverkusen next season to the disappointment of both Liverpool and Bayern Munich who were both in hot pursuit of the Spaniard, Ruben Amorim topped the list. Various media outlets reported that Liverpool had made contact with him and it seemed like he would be the one to replace Klopp. In the last few weeks, things appeared to have taken a whole new direction as Liverpool are now closing a deal with Arne Slot to replace Klopp at the end of the season. So who is Arne Slot and why is he the one replacing Klopp?
Arne Slot is a 45-year-old Dutch football manager and former player who currently manages Eredivisie team Feyenoord. He retired from playing football in 2013 at PEC Zwolle and joined the managerial staff at the club. He worked his way up to become interim coach at Cambur with Sipke Hulshoff. The pair improved the club and helped them climb from 14th to 3rd position narrowly missing out on a promotion to the Eredivisie.
Slot left Cambuur in 2017 to join AZ in 2017. He was an assistant in John Van den Brom’s management staff. Slot succeeded den Brom in 2019 and was head coach of the club for the 2019/2020 season. His first season in charge saw him reach the round of 32 of the Europa League and finish second behind Ajax. He was sacked by the club in 2020 for not focusing on the team as he was negotiating a move to Feyenoord.
He joined Feyenoord in December 2020 succeeding Dick Advocaat and he achieved historic feats with the club. He reached the final of the inaugural Europa Conference League competition with the club in 2022. Although they lost 1-0 to José Mourinho’s Roma, it was still a historic achievement for the club. In the same year, Feyenoord finished third in the Eredivisie and Slot won the Rinus Michels Award for the Eredivisie Manager of the Year. He won the Eredivisie in the 2022/2023 season, bringing home the club’s first title since 2017 and 16th in their history. Most recently he won the KNVB Cup by beating NEC in April 2024.
Slot is objectively one of the best managers in the history of Feyenoord who has a penchant for delivering results while developing players. He fits the profile that Liverpool is currently looking for; someone who can deliver results, bridge the gap between them and Man City, and develop new talents that will replace Liverpool’s current stars like Mo Salah and Van Dijk who are aging out.
Slot’s style of play has been described as similar to Pep Guardiola’s style of free-flowing attacking football which takes inspiration from the legendary Johan Cruyff’s football philosophy. Dutch football expert Marcel Van de Kraan certainly agrees with this view. “Arne is a real lover of good attacking football, and what he’s done so far in Holland, is play exactly like Pep does, like Cruyff used to do at Ajax and Barcelona,” he said in an exclusive interview with talksport.com. Van de Kraan also likened Slot’s personality to Klopp, describing him as very cheery like the German.
Jürgen Klopp’s shoes will not be easy to fill for any manager considering what he has achieved with Liverpool on and off the pitch. He was greatly loved at Liverpool and enjoyed a lot of goodwill from the fans. As Liverpool closes their chapter with Klopp and opens another one with Slot, fans and stakeholders hope that he will take them to new heights of success. Slot is no Klopp. He is younger and much less experienced but his past achievements show that he has the makings of an excellent manager; one that can take Liverpool to where they want to go. Whether he will live up to the expectations and bridge the gap between Liverpool and Man City remains to be seen when Liverpool starts playing Slot ball next season.
What do you think of the Dutchman?