Arne Slot couldn’t have done much more to endear himself to Liverpool supporters. After beating Spurs 5-1 at Anfield, his side was confirmed as Premier League champion.
Throughout the season, Slot’s team has performed consistently and is on track to break the 90-point barrier. Considering he was a relative unknown on English shores when he arrived from Feyenoord to replace Jurgen Klopp, it is a remarkable achievement.
Signing only Federico Chiesa in his first summer at the helm — a player who has barely featured since — Slot has got the very most out of the key parts of his roster. The likes of Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo, his Dutch compatriots, have been transformed.
In his previous job, Slot won the Eredivisie title with Feyenoord. Now, he has repeated the trick with Liverpool, losing only to Nottingham Forest and Fulham.
“First ever Dutch manager to win the Premier League,” the official Feyenoord accounts posted on social media, with a photograph of Slot with his arms in the air in celebration. “Congrats from all of us, boss.”
“Very, very happy, of course,” Slot said in his post-match press conference. “But to a certain extent also quite unreal because you work so hard for this moment to happen and when it then does happen, it needs some time for you to truly feel it.
“But the fans were so happy that it didn’t take us long, and didn’t take me long, to understand what we’ve achieved together this season. The moment I knew I would become the new head coach over here, that’s already a moment that you’re so proud of – to be part of such a great football club.
(Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
“Then now to be part of the history of this football club is something I think I could only have dreamt of two, three or four years ago. I don’t know if it’s funny or not but I think four, five or six years ago it was the first time when I was here when Pep Lijnders invited me – that was against Tottenham and I think they won that game 4-0 somewhere around Christmas time.
“We all know what happened around Tottenham one or two years ago, so now to win it against them is quite special. The [person] I was with was my sporting director at Cambuur Leeuwarden where I worked back then, he showed me that we were visiting a match from the U21s where Trent [Alexander-Arnold] and Joe [Gomez] were involved in that game. So, a special day and not the first time I was here when we played Tottenham.”
Liverpool.com says: Slot deserves to win the Manager of the Year award, for sure. What he has done, coming in after a legend in Klopp, is exceptional work. Continuity is one thing, but he has made several elements of the Liverpool team much better. Liverpool has won the title at a canter.
