As Liverpool they themselves admit, the dismissal of Arne Slot “It was a difficult decision to make.” To which the natural answer is yes, you certainly made it seem that way. In making a call they didn’t have to make, they made the move to let the best manager on the market and one who would have been a perfect fit for the Anfield pit, register with rivals Chelsea before they even start needing replacement. They should also still be able to find a very talented coach, but the difference between Liverpool of old and this one, even if some of the central characters are back, is that they don’t look like making all the difficult decisions in front of them.
Michael Edwards will know better than most that doing so is how you win the Premier League title. It takes difficult decisions in a cold and rational way. He, former Fenway Sports Group (FSG) president Mike Gordon, and the team that supported him in the mid-2010s were clear-sighted enough to see that for all the past success of Brendan Rodgers, who had brought Liverpool closer to the title than anyone else since 1990, he had to go if Jurgen Klopp was on the market.
At the end of this season they advanced. The word around Anfield for most of the spring was that qualification for the Champions League would keep Arne Slot safe, that they understood that this was an exceptionally trying season for the club that lost Diogo Jota in the summer. This was just the beginning of the formation of the next Liverpool team. The nearest walk of the Mohamed Salah it will make it easier for Slot to do something of his own rather than draining the last drops of juice from Klopp’s cornucopia, even if the performances have steadily declined in two years.
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That was the logic behind allowing Xabi Alonso to slip to Chelsea despite marking almost every option Liverpool could have for their next manager. A Champions League winner as a player, he has proven himself capable of empowering teams to win the biggest prizes in the game. He you know club, which is probably more important than anything else. His pressing and tactical style suits the players. Not surprising, since he trained two of them.
And his stint at Real Madrid will have provided valuable insight into how to survive under the scrutiny of the media. The best version of Liverpool might not take it so personally that he was unwilling to leave Bayer Leverkusen in the midst of what would become one of the greatest seasons in the club’s football history.
Andoni Iraola, who is widely considered to be the best in this space, may continue to show that he can bring a big club together. At the moment, it is not known if that is one of the tactics the outgoing Bournemouth manager has the arsenal of training qualities. Iraola can clearly improve young players and deliver more than expected salary cap performance. His knack for adapting to his tactical style while struggling early on in the Premier League also bodes well for him. It’s just that those qualities mentioned above are the kind you need in a more central English side than Liverpool.
Unleash Bournemouth’s style of top talent, and you might get the “heavy metal ball” that Mohamed Salah is looking for. Having said that, couldn’t you see Iraola’s methods being tested in a team in the middle between Bournemouth and Liverpool, Bayer Leverkusen, or, although he didn’t have all that space, AC Milan? Of course you’d like to choose between the next big thing in Iraola or top quality coaches, many of whom have locked themselves away at Stamford Bridge or another two years on the international circuit.
It’s hard to shake the idea that the best working version of Liverpool’s front office would have made that choice for themselves. That’s not it. Edwards, who returned to the club in a senior role in 2024, is said to have been unhappy with the failure of FSG’s owners to develop a multi-club model. Sports director CV Richard Hughes He is furious that he brought Iraola to Bournemouth before leaving. The little he did at Liverpool did a lot to strengthen his position.
In fact, that includes renting a Slot. Although he took the club to the title remaining in Klopp’s team, it was never clear what he would do with his Liverpool. Even some of the difficulties of this season have been inherited from the old guard: the firing of Salah, the failure to develop a quality midfielder since Fabino et al have aged out of efficiency, the endless contract problems.
None of this is to say that Slot should not have gone. If you inherit at least the third best team in the country, and two years later they finish third, fourth or fifth, you cannot argue that you are pushing this team forward. The issue is not in the decision they made, but the plan of the last two years that led them to this point.
It’s as if this club has forgotten what made it great for so long. At their peak, Liverpool had one of the world’s top two managers and the best recruitment and retention department in the world. Even if they can ignore the coaching decision and the first one is realized by the start of 2026-27, the evidence of the last few years is that it will not happen. You don’t lose the title that way.
You win the title because your thinking is integrated, it includes the present and the future. For example, it does not give Arne Slot a team where there is no clear plan to bring in a new one while saying goodbye to the old (and still great) one with enough respect. Is there really a way to turn two borderline players, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak into a team that has once again placed Mohamed Salah? Not when the running backs under the middle are as strapped as they were last season.
That won’t be easy next summer. After spending half a billion last summer, Liverpool do not have to fill the gap they saw Marc Guehi, who joined Manchester City in January, but found a new center to fill. Ibrahima Konatewho will leave on a free this summer, and all that with a diminutive view of Virgil van Dijk. Oh and they need to upgrade the platform they put down. And the speed is wide. Again the new manager.
It’s a mess Liverpool have got themselves into. That’s not all that Slot’s doing.
