- Liverpool are in advanced talks to hire Arne Slot as Jurgen Klopp’s successor
- Klopp admitted on Friday that he ‘liked the Dutchman’s brand of football’
- Arne Slot needs to be his own manager. Replacing Jurgen Klopp is an impossible job. Don’t try to emulate him – Listen to the It’s All Kicking Off! podcast
Outgoing Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has publicly endorsed Arne Slot, the man expected to become his successor, by describing the Feyenoord boss as a ‘good coach and good guy’.
Mail Sport reported this morning how the Dutch club are ready to conclude a deal for their manager Slot to become Liverpool’s new boss within the next 48 hours and advanced talks between the two clubs will continue this afternoon.
There is an expectation at the Dutch club that those discussions will reach a positive conclusion after Slot publicly admitted his desire to join Liverpool on Thursday night. Well-placed sources believe an agreement will be reached by the end of the weekend.
Slot emerged as the best candidate within Liverpool’s hierarchy and has now been publicly endorsed by Klopp. ‘I am not involved in the process, just to clarify that,’ said Klopp. ‘(But) I like a lot about it if he is the one. He wants to take the job. Come on, let’s go for it. Excited.
‘I like the way his team play football. All the things I hear about him as a guy, (he is) a good guy. Some people I know know him, but I don’t know him yet. Some people tell me that he is a really good guy. I like that a lot.
‘Good coach, good guy. Looking forward for the club if he is the solution or the man. I’m more than happy. It’s not up to me to judge these things but it all sounds really good to me.
‘This is the best job in the world, best club in the world. Obviously now I even help by not finishing on a high, it looks like. There is space for improvement. Great job, great team, fantastic people. He would take a really, really interesting job.’
Klopp’s team all but surrendered the Premier League title on Wednesday night with a meek 2-0 defeat at rivals Everton. The manager admitted in the immediate aftermath that he would need a ‘crisis’ at both Arsenal and Manchester City who are above the Reds in the table.
The German boss said that was the most emotionally bruising defeat of his managerial career. ‘I can’t remember ever being as disappointed or frustrated after a game as I was after the Everton game,’ added Klopp.
‘I lost a lot of games in my life but it was special we were not there. You watch the other two Arsenal and City playing very positive football and high results. We are where we are because we play positive football and we were not able to.
‘I blame myself 100 per cent because we were not in the mood. We lost pretty much all the decisive battles, that was really really bad. In general, one or two weeks where we don’t play positive football.
‘We have chances but it just feels like we are trying to catch up with something. I will try everything I can to try to play our football again because that was not possible in the last game. I cannot say I think they still feel us around.
‘I am pretty sure Arsenal and City now see it as a two-horse race, they have to say something else publicly but I don’t expect them to lose two games. West Ham (who Liverpool play tomorrow) want and have to show a reaction and we do.’
Liverpool will be boosted by the return of Cody Gakpo to the squad for the trip to London, after the Dutchman’s wife gave birth to a boy this week and he missed the Everton defeat.
Klopp says he is ‘not ready to give up or wave the white flag’ in his final four games as boss.
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
