Arne Slot has said he would not have taken the Liverpool job had he been one of several candidates to replace Jürgen Klopp and that he can envisage managing at Anfield as long as his renowned predecessor.
Klopp will return to Anfield on Sunday for the first time since stepping down, to seeLiverpoollift the Premier League trophy. Slot said it would be a proud moment to raise the trophy in front of his predecessor, who built this title-winning squad, and that he would not have left Feyenoord but for Richard Hughes, Liverpool’s sporting director, making clear he was “the only one” the club wanted.
“There was never one second of a doubt [about succeeding Klopp] and that was largely to do with the fact why they wanted me and how they tried to convince me to come,” said the head coach, who refused to be drawn on whether he expects to be offered a new contract this summer.
“I didn’t have to open my laptop one time to show them what I did or how I worked. They knew everything about me. Journalists in Holland wrote wrongly that I was one of the three or four candidates, but from the start it was clear to me. I told my agent that ‘if I am one of three [candidates] I am not interested, I’m only interested if they want me as the only one’. I didn’t want to go into another summer where I had to do all these kinds of meetings and then waiting, waiting, waiting. My time at Feyenoord was too good.”
Hughes visited Slot at home in Zwolle last April and gave a presentation on why the Dutch coach was the ideal fit. Slot said: “Liverpool were so clear they wanted to have me, and they knew everything about me. Immediately it was: ‘OK.’ Richard knew many, many, many games and many of the assessments I’ve made during games – the changes I made in tactics. Julian [Ward, Fenway Sports Group’s technical director] visited the [Feyenoord] training ground and spoke with a lot of people trying to get some knowledge for the club and how I worked. There was not a stone unturned.”
Slot has challenged Liverpool’s players to prove they can be serial winners next season and agreed, given Liverpool’s track record of retaining managers for long periods, that he could see himself emulating Klopp’s nine seasons in charge.
“I could see it, but it is kind of arrogant to say it if you have only been here a year that you will be here for nine years,” he said. “I don’t think it will be enough if after five years I say: ‘Do remember that in my first year I won the league title.’ Maybe it is different in the modern era and compared to other clubs, but the reason Pep [Guardiola] is there for nine years and Jürgen was here for nine years is that they both won a lot as well. Maybe that is notthereason, but it is a reason. This club might be an exception to the new world we are living in.”
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Slot’s assistant, John Heitinga, has been linked with the managerial vacancy at Ajax, his former club. “If Ajax would be smart they would consider him,” Slot said. “He is ready to take on a job like that. If John is smart, he would stay here one more season.”