sport news Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool successor faces an unenviable task... but the ... trends now
Diego Simeone isn't the most difficult football manager to wind up but Arne Slot's reaction spoke volumes.
The Atletico Madrid boss got physical with his Dutch counterpart after Feyenoord beat them in a 2021 friendly, shoving Slot in the chest and launching a verbal volley.
Slot's Stone Island gear suggested he might have been up for a scrap but instead he just stood his ground and smiled mockingly at Simeone, who backed down.
It was the sign of a man who doesn't shy away from a challenge.
Feyenoord's coach is ruthlessly ambitious and a control freak who demands total control at a club. But he also has emotional intelligence, knows how to create a team ethic and plays attractive football.
Feyenoord coach Arne Slot has emerged as Liverpool's favoured candidate to succeed Jurgen Klopp - with talks between the two clubs underway
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone tried to pick a fight with Slot after a friendly in 2021
In response to being shoved, the Stone Island-wearing Slot just smiled back at Simeone
So there are reasons both for and against his suitability for the unenviable task of succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool.
Slot, 45, who has just backed up last season's Eredivisie title win by delivering the KNVB Cup to Rotterdam, has emerged as a strong contender for the Anfield gig.
Indeed, on Wednesday morning it emerged talks have already begun between Liverpool and Feyenoord with the compensation fee set at £8.5million.
On the face of it, Slot's 4-3-3 formation, intensity of pressing and high energy attacking bears many resemblances to Klopp's 'heavy metal' (Slot is more into his rap music).
But the Liverpool vacancy requires so much more that just a good tactician.
For nine years, Klopp has carried not only a club but at times a city defiant in its own identity and independence.
That emotional burden has ultimately caught up with him but not before he won the biggest honours in the game.
Liverpool's new manager must not only perform in Klopp's lingering shadow but somehow keep up his boundless energy and forge the same bonds with a demanding fanbase and players that aren't his own.
The experiences of David Moyes and Unai Emery, after Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, have shown just how difficult it is to follow a manager of legendary stature.
Succeeding the immensely popular Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool is an unenviable challenge
Slot delivered the Eredivisie league title to Feyenoord last season, their first since 2017
Some would say the man who follows Klopp is on a similar hiding to nothing even if Liverpool fans would surely be sympathetic and patient if there was regression next season.
Like Klopp, Slot had a respectable but hardly spectacular playing career at the likes of FC Zwolle and NAC Breda rather than Ajax or Feyenoord.
But when it comes to coaching, Slot sees no reason to curb his ambitions, even if it has rubbed people up the wrong way.
AZ Alkmaar abruptly sacked him in December 2020
