Fan discontent boiled over last season but the head coach wasn’t the only one who made mistakes at the club
Inevitable and necessary. Despite the continual briefings coming out of the UK side of the club’s operation, the silence from Liverpool’s American ownership was deafening. No vote of confidence, no contract extension talks and – most significant – no official appointment of Etiënne Reijnen to Arne Slot’s coaching staff. According to multiple reports last week, Slot was bringing in his old mucker to help turn the ship around, but the longer that remained unconfirmed it began to feel as if something was afoot.
Eventually, on Saturday lunchtime, six days after the final game of a season in which the Reds lost 19 games, Slot was gone. Regardless of what happens next, it was the correct decision. If the next guy does not do well, that does not mean sacking Slot was a mistake. It made no sense for Liverpool’s ownership to allow this to continue, regardless of how much Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes reportedly wanted to stick with the status quo.
I can’t remember Liverpool fans being more united in wanting a trophy-winning manager removed. Usually there’s a split in the fanbase and it can get quite ugly (the Rafa wars were particularly harrowing!) but this time it was pretty unanimous. We all knew. Some may have half-heartedly railed against the idea of “sacking a league-winning manager” but when it happened there was very little condemnation. Mostly it was relief.
Anfield had started to become toxic with open revolt against Slot on display in the recent draw with Chelsea. It had threatened to get that way a few times previously (there were some boos after Burnley) but for the most part the crowd had shown great patience given the sterile football and disappointing results being served up. There’s no coming back from the position Slot found himself in. It was over, and virtually everyone knew it.
That makes the constant briefings coming out of the club that his job was safe very worrying. This wasn’t some clever bluff by the smartest guys in the room to keep Slot focused until Champions League football was secured. By all accounts, Edwards and/or Hughes were prepared to let him carry on. That is until John Henry stepped in. That’s alarming to me, but then as much as I wanted Slot gone, I’d rather Edwards had gone first as I think he’s a bigger problem. Hughes too, although it’s hard to judge him when he’s no doubt being micro-managed by Edwards, FSG’s big boss man of football.
A lot of outsiders think Slot has been treated harshly as it was only 12 months ago he was leading us to our 20th title. I get that to some extent, but he won the title with another man’s squad, and that squad has since been completely dismantled by Slot and those above him. Some fans get prickly and defensive when you say he won the league with Jürgen Klopp’s squad, but it’s a fact. I don’t know why saying so is seen as somehow denigrating his achievement, because to me it’s the opposite. Taking over somebody else’s team and delivering a title in your first season in a new league is an incredible accomplishment.
If that same squad were still in place then maybe you could roll the dice on Slot in the hope that he could rediscover past glories. That isn’t the case, though. Much of that squad is gone or going and, despite a huge amount of money being spent to supposedly take the club to even greater heights, it’s gone backwards at an alarming rate. Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz flopped, there were no signs of any plan or identity and nobody really knows what Slot’s preferred style is. Then you get Mohamed Salah telling the world how bad it is and most of the squad agreeing with him. It looked like mutiny.
The dream is that our real dad (Klopp) comes home but it’s probably going to be another stepdad – this time a fun Spanish one. Andoni Iraola ticks plenty of boxes, but not all of them. He hasn’t experienced the goldfish bowl of a big club like Liverpool, he hasn’t had to navigate the demands of playing twice, or three times, a week and teams don’t set up against Bournemouth in the same way they do Liverpool.
It would be a risk, but the upside is huge as Bournemouth play the most exciting football in the league. The Premier League has become boring but I enjoy watching the Cherries because they always have a go. They run, they press, they play on the front foot. Dare I say they play the “heavy-metal football” Salah called for a return to? Leading Bournemouth to sixth after losing his four or five best players is remarkable, so if it’s Iraola, sound.
David Usher is the editor of the Liverpool Way
