Arne Slot has done what Guardiola, Klopp and Wenger could not

Times

28-04-2025

Virgil van Dijk had his shirt on back to front, the players linked arms and swayed to a sloppy version of You'll Never Walk Alone like it was five past closing time. Mohamed Salah obliged with what appeared to be his thousandth selfie of the afternoon, a grin so big it almost broke the boundaries of his face.
And to think, when this season began, most would have settled for fourth. Bloody fourth. That would have been a good year for Liverpool after Jürgen Klopp, most reckoned. Just don't do a David Moyes, don't do an Unai Emery. The fear was of a club drifting to the periphery as Manchester United and Arsenal did, when their iconic leaders stood down. The fear was of the crash.
So this is a remarkable, unique triumph. Slot is the first Dutch manager to win the English league, and one of a select band to have done so in their first season — only ten since the dawn of the Football League, when Liverpool Football Club didn't even exist.
And this has been a comprehensive win, too, a thoroughly deserved 15 points clear as it stands. If that gap narrows over the coming month it will be because Liverpool finally caught their breath with the job done; the rivals will not truly have drawn any closer. Nobody has been able to live with them, up to here. Six more wins than any other team, one less defeat, 14 more goals scored and the same margin ahead on goal difference. And level with Manchester United on titles won now, of course. Back on their perch as one of The Kop's many banners had it. And squawking loudly, after so much restraint.
So where does Slot's title win reside in the pantheon of achievement? Up there, certainly. He is one of only ten managers in English football history to deliver the championship in his first season in English football. Yet five of those have come in a Premier League era dominated by super clubs and financial juggernaut owners. José Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and Antonio Conte at Chelsea were all backed by the wealth of Roman Abramovich, while Manuel Pellegrini had the support of Sheikh Mansour at Manchester City. Yet Liverpool are no paupers, either. They are the epitome of the American-owned establishment elite. What other forms of separation can then be deployed?
How about recency? The distance between the title won and its predecessor? Slot's up there on that, too. Of the ten first-time champions, four — Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool 1985-86, Joe Fagan at Liverpool 1983-84, George Allison at Arsenal 1934-35 and Cecil Potter at Huddersfield Town 1925-26 — inherited title-winning teams. There was just a two-year gap between Conte and Pellegrini's wins and the last title glory for Chelsea and Manchester City, three seasons (and the Second World War) between Arsenal's last title and Tom Whittaker winning it in 1947-48, and four blank years before Ancelotti claimed the title at Stamford Bridge in 2009-10.
This makes Slot winning the league at his first attempt the strongest arrival in English football of any manager since Mourinho, who landed Chelsea's first title in 50 years straight off the bat in 2004-05. And it's going to be very hard for anyone to match the impression Mourinho made, given Chelsea's rapid growth under Abramovich. So Slot's record is a match for almost anyone. Pep Guardiola did not make such an instant impact at Manchester City, nor Klopp at Liverpool, nor Arsène Wenger, nor any Manchester United manager in their history.
And English football is unique. There is no such thing as beginner's luck. Even those that come here and professed to love it — like Mourinho, like Klopp — marvelled at its idiosyncrasies. When Mourinho returned to Chelsea he said he had missed the unique challenges of the English game. He recalled sitting on a Brazilian beach at Christmas, wishing he was playing a Boxing Day game, he said he pined for the League Cup, and the savage intensity of the fixture list over Easter.
It was pointed out that most thought this was what dragged English footballers down. 'I'm not saying it's good for the game,' he deadpanned. 'I'm just saying I like it.' Klopp mimed trying to give a team talk while peering around the central column that obscures a manager's view of the players in the away dressing room at Selhurst Park. 'Is this it?' he asked, when first taking in the confined space. 'Here?'
Slot would be experiencing all of this for the first time this season. The schedules, the frantic relentlessness of the campaign and, apart of a momentary loss of reason at Goodison Park, he has handled it all with perspective, grace and humour. The football's not been bad, either. By any measure, for a manager new to our game, this has been one of the great seasons.
It means some may find it strange that Klopp has accepted an invitation to attend Anfield on May 25, the day the trophy is presented. Most former managers would have stayed away, left clear space for the man who has delivered such an extraordinary first season. Yet Slot and Klopp are friends. They speak, they text. And Klopp is travelling to Merseyside for the club foundation's gala ball two days earlier. He will be honoured by the League Managers' Association in London too. So, as a visitor to England across that weekend, where should he be if not Anfield? If the Premier League were smart, they'd get him to present the trophy, rather than Richard Masters; or would that be too much?
For this isn't Klopp's trophy, no matter how many wish Slot to share it. Nostalgia often imbues Anfield in these moments but there is no evidence that Klopp would have won the league as convincingly had he remained. Of the ten players with the most league starts for Liverpool this season — Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté, Andrew Robertson, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Luis Díaz, Alexis Mac Allister and Salah — all were present last season, too. The only change would have been Darwin Núñez and Wataru Endo in for Gravenberch and Konaté. So Klopp had Slot's team at his disposal and couldn't make them champions.
CARL RECINE/GETTY IMAGES
It will be argued that was down to injuries, a stronger, more consistent Manchester City and an Arsenal team that wasn't as nobbled by injury or distracted by the Champions League, yet that underplays what Slot has done. Claudio Ranieri suffered a similar lack of respect at Leicester City, with the idea he had merely inherited a team built by his predecessor Nigel Pearson. The leap from 14th to first was disregarded, much like the many tweaks and changes Ranieri made.
So, yes, this was a team built under Klopp's stewardship. Yet Klopp did not contemplate Gravenberch as a defensive midfielder, or use his full backs conventionally; he would not have as good as dispensed with Núñez, or played Szoboszlai as a glorified ten in many games, freeing Salah.
He destroyed Tottenham Hotspur from that position on Sunday, although it wasn't hard. There hasn't been a Slot revolution, but he has evolved the ideas of the previous regime to help shape his own. He went early deciding that Konaté was the best partner for Van Dijk — half-time, first game of the season against Ipswich Town when he replaced Jarell Quansah — and even though his preference was for full backs that stuck to their defensive duties, he was never swayed by Conor Bradley's claim to Alexander-Arnold's role. He just improved the capabilities of his first choice.
It meant Slot looked very comfortable in his own skin on the pitch at Anfield. He knew the words to the songs, he joined in with the celebrating players, treated them as his own. Why should he be put out by Klopp's presence on May 25? He has much to thank him for. He couldn't have done it without him. But that doesn't mean Liverpool would have done it with him, either. Yet what of the future?
It seems strange for a club to win the league and be subjected to chat about a rebuild, yet the new contracts for Salah and Van Dijk were a welcome relief, but no long-term solution. Salah is 33 in June, Van Dijk 34 in July. If the pressing need was to secure their presence next season, the subsequent task is to ensure there is a transition that does not see the culture and potency of the club collapse. It was noticeable that when the anthem began it was Van Dijk who ensured all the players and staff were gathered in a line in front of The Kop. When the time comes, he will be missed.
And what is the going rate for the next Salah and Van Dijk? £200million? Liverpool have been smart recruiters in the past, but bargains are increasingly elusive. They paid a world record fee for a defender when Van Dijk joined in 2018 and these days, one good season at Bournemouth has elevated Dean Huijsen into the same price bracket. Milos Kerkez, his Bournemouth team-mate, who is discussed as a potential successor to Robertson, is thought to be attracting bids in the region of £45million — three times what Robertson cost, from Hull City.
Bradley could be a saving grace if he comes through the ranks to replace Alexander-Arnold. 'He has the quality, but the next step in his development is to play every week and feel that pressure,' said Slot. So, still in development, or a regular starter? These days, with so much focus on profit and sustainability, whether Liverpool are buying for the first team or the bench when Alexander-Arnold leaves, makes a difference.
There are sales to be made, of course. It is hard to imagine Núñez lasting another season. It was Klopp who championed his arrival and Slot clearly feels no such faith, or loyalty. The understudy goalkeeper, Caoimhin Kelleher, is being squeezed by the arrival of Valencia's Giorgi Mamardashvili, and is tipped to leave in search of first-team football and if a left-back is bought, Kostas Tsimikas may feel similarly displaced. It won't be easy. Arsenal will undoubtedly strengthen and Manchester City will have Rodri back. Eddie Howe's Newcastle United have already shown their potential to damage, at Wembley.
Gordon Williams wrote the Hazell books with Terry Venables and was at Selhurst Park in 1979, when his friend took Crystal Palace into the old First Division. There was a crowd of 51,801 to see them beat Burnley and raucous celebrations long into the night. Later, Williams found Venables in a small office, away from it all, a single lamp lighting his desk and a glass of champagne going flat and warm on the side. 'What are you up to?' Williams wanted to know. 'I'm thinking,' Venables said. 'What about?' asked Williams. 'Next year,' Venables replied.