The plan was to bring in a Dutch coach from Feyenoord to support a Dutch coach from Feyenoord. Until Liverpool decided they had too many Dutch coaches from Feyenoord. Etienne Reijnen, the set-piece specialist who was due to link up with Arne Slot again, will not arrive. Slot is gone.
His departure may have been welcomed by much of a fanbase that had turned against him but came with considerable regret at Anfield. It nevertheless represented a swift and sudden change of heart.
Liverpool’s support for Slot was such that they never intervened when Chelsea appointed Xabi Alonso. They had instead planned to reinforce his backroom staff. Slot himself was expecting to be back for a third season at Anfield; hoping, too, with the dramatic developments of the sacking disappointing him. He believed he had the backing of the club. Until the last couple of days, it seemed he did.
An end-of-season review carried a harshness. Slot, one of only two men to make Liverpool champions in the last 36 years, is axed after two seasons. Liverpool were the club who never sacked their title-winning managers; except Kenny Dalglish, but in his second spell. Slot is gone 12 months after his triumph; a sign of more impatient times, perhaps.
Keeping him ran the obvious risk that he would become Erik ten Hag, or Brendan Rodgers: a manager dismissed in the autumn when the eventual verdict was that, as many thought at the time, he should have gone in the previous summer. Slot’s argument was always that, with fewer injuries and astute recruitment, a third season under him would be better than the second. Liverpool eventually decided they would not put that theory to the test.
Director of football Richard Hughes took the decision, supported by Michael Edwards and Fenway Sports Group. Hughes had spearheaded the appointment of Slot; now the candidates to replace him include Andoni Iraola, who the Scot brought to Bournemouth. The Liverpool hierarchy prefer to keep a low profile; arguably, though, they have questions to answer.
Slot may have ended up carrying the can for their poor recruitment; the £450m outlay created more problems than it solved. Alexander Isak posed rather more issues for a manager presented with a semi-fit £125m white elephant than opposition defences. The narrative developed, though, that Slot won with Jurgen Klopp’s team and lost with his own.
It was not entirely fair. Slot’s tweaks helped turn a side who finished third in 2024 into champions a year later. The subsequent signings were not all his; injury problems proved debilitating and the entire season came in the shadow of the tragic loss of Diogo Jota.
That was horrific. Other circumstances were difficult. Slot conducted himself with dignity and usually in good humour. On a personal level, he merits considerable sympathy. Some of it came from within the club. Liverpool acted reluctantly. The decision did not sit easily with them or feel entirely fair. But, as their statement said, they ruled that “change is necessary”. Increasingly, it felt more and more change was needed; maybe a damaged Slot was not trusted to oversee it.
Some of the numbers were damning. Liverpool got just 60 points, 24 fewer than the year before. Their goal tally dropped by 23. They conceded more goals than in any previous 38-game Premier League season. In all competitions, they lost 19 times. Nor were there signs things were getting better. Liverpool took just two points from their last four matches. In all competitions, they won only three of the last 11.
Slot had orchestrated a revival of sorts after the awful autumn run of nine defeats in 12; Liverpool lost none of the next 13. Yet it felt that many supporters’ minds were made up in October or November. Fan feeling was a factor in his eventual dismissal, though far from the only one.
But if people turned against Slot, so did football in general. The style of play as the Premier League became faster, more physical. He could complain about set-pieces and low blocks, but Liverpool had to combat them and too often they did not. Slot had seemed the calm antidote to Klopp but Liverpool concluded they needed a more urgent, front-footed and aggressive style of play; the heavy-metal football Mohamed Salah said they had lost.
Salah’s own decline hardly helped in that. There were ways in which circumstances conspired against Slot. There were also times when he seemed to have too few answers to the questions that were being posed. Perhaps a man who, 12 months ago, seemed the ideal replacement for Klopp can now testify to the difficulties of being the manager who came after Klopp.
He can certainly wonder if things would be different had his season been reversed: fifth the first year, first the second. The fact, though, is that they were not. He accomplished something Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez, arguably more revered figures and managers who were given six seasons, could not, and made them champions. It was not enough to save him.
It is anticipated that Slot will be paid for the final year of his Liverpool contract. He should not need a lengthy break from management. His achievements at Anfield ought to position him for another job with one of the European elite.
Liverpool felt he was one of the leading coaches in the global game and, imperfect as his time at Anfield was, he deserves another big job. But Liverpool looks a huge task for his successor as they stumble their way into a summer of upheaval.