Arne Slot played “like a snail” but forced the Dutch legend to resign with a miraculous training session – but Diego Simeone thought he was the man in the kit.
Arne Slot has already done what his predecessor Jürgen Klopp could never do with Liverpool: he beat Real Madrid.
And yet, just three years ago, city rival Atlético Madrid thought he was the man in the uniform.
The Dutchman is arguably the biggest story in European football so far this season, leading the Reds to the top of the Premier League and Champions League with 17 wins from 19, the best start of any manager at the legendary club. .
While everyone felt there could be a collapse with eerie similarities to when Sir Alex Ferguson left Manchester United, the opposite happened.
And things could get even better with a win. city of manchester on Sunday.
Liverpool has the chance to move 11 points away from its bruised rivals at Anfield and Slot could become a legend in record time, but his real goal may be to win pep guardiola and earning their respect.
Because Slot hasn't always had that, as one of the men who knows him best explains.
Mikos Gouka is a reporter for the important Dutch media AD and has covered Slot and Feyenoord during the last three years. Through his new book 'Slot-bal', he details how the 46-year-old rose from relative obscurity to the top of the game, and talkSPORT was lucky enough to glimpse that extraordinary journey.
Born in the small Dutch town of Bergentheim, Slot's parents were teachers, but his father was also an amateur football coach who invited his two sons to matches where they gained an idea of how football worked, but more Even more importantly, communication and tactics. .
Slot would go on to play for local PEC Zwolle and bounce between the first and second divisions, on the brink of a call-up to the Dutch national team that never came.
Recalling what the former midfielder was like as a player, Gouka said: “He was a pretty good player, but not top-level. He always tried to convince people that he was a good player, but when they lost he was always the first one to leave because he wasn't working hard and he didn't have a dirty uniform, he wasn't Roy Keane It was more Matt Le Tissier.
“At the end of his career he told us 'he wasn't very fast, someone told me he was like a snail' but he said 'I have to do everything well on the field, he was in the midfield so that the players around him had to be in the correct position and in the correct position. “He was almost a coach on the field.”
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At one point, Slot literally became the coach of the field, with outstanding results. Facing an Ajax team led by possibly the best athletes in the country's history, Marco van BastenSlot had a plan.
“Sparta Rotterdam had a tactical plan for that match, but Slot changed it,” Gouka explained. “I was talking to the coach, Foeke Booy, and he said 'if we do it that way and put me on the right wing, it might be the best solution.' Booy thought about it for an hour and said 'we'll do it like this' and Sparta won 4-0.
“It was a miracle and Van Basten resigned after the game. “All the Sparta players said that it was his tactical change that won the match, so I thought 'maybe he will go very far'.”
Not all of Slot's ingenuity always worked, however, as a famous viral moment from his playing days sparked some laughs across the country.
Gouka remembers: “He was at PEC Zwolle as a player and wanted to try something new on the kick-off and tried to pass the ball behind the other team's defense by throwing it into the sky.
“He tried it and it worked several times, but one time he tried it and the ball went in the wrong direction because he didn't have the technical skills.
“That footage was selected by several programs that made fun of it. He was a bit frustrated by that and when he arrived at Feyenoord the players didn't know about it, but when they saw it on television they started doing it in training and saying: 'Arne, can we try this in the next game?'.
“He always laughed about it and I asked him if he was upset and he said 'they can make fun of me, but as long as they don't make fun of me too much' he knows where to stop and he knows when to laugh. about it. The players said that he was always there as one of us, but he was always the coach, he had a soft manner.”
Slot was so smooth that he quickly convinced everyone around him. Take former assistant and Dutch international John de Wolf, for example, who told Slot that his enthusiasm and understanding of the game made him want to start playing again. De Wolf had retired due to a knee injury that prevented him from even doing light exercise.
Or there is Jens Toornstra, a Feyenoord regular before Slot's arrival, but who soon left for Utrecht after becoming a bench player. Still, he will tell Gouka that Slot is the best coach he has ever worked with because “he is very good at communicating.”
Slot's “two biggest professional frustrations” would come in AZ. The first was the cancellation of his title challenge against Ajax due to Covid in 2020 with the Eredivisie cancelled, and the second AZ sacked him after discovering he was speaking to Feyenoord.
As regretful as he was, Slot got the job at Feyenoord and one of his first games was in a pre-season friendly when he faced the first iconic coach of his iconic career: Diego Simeone.
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The legendary Atlético de Madrid coach was a dream rival for Slot, but he soon became frustrated by a lack of respect in a rather amusing way.
Gouka related: “Feyenoord won in the last minute and they were celebrating and Slot wanted to shake Simeone's hand, but Simeone didn't realize it was the head coach, he thought it might be the uniform guy or someone at that level. .
“Slot started laughing and then Simeone thought he was laughing at him and wanted to punch him.
“After that he also had some fights with (Jose) Mourinho, but he said: 'I had to accept that one because I lost.' There were two moments in which the big managers did not take him seriously, but now he had beaten Ancelotti and the next could be Guardiola. Three years ago they thought he was in charge of the kit.
Slot would go through another period of feeling underrated during 2023/24 when he failed to follow up his Eredivisie title as PSV swept the league in astonishing circumstances.
Slot later admitted he turned down Tottenham in the summer of 2023, and Gouka also revealed he shared a private jet with the Chelsea owner. Todd Boehlywhile Brighton also made a move.
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However, he decided to stay and after failing to win back-to-back titles, the media began to speculate that he should not have stayed and that clubs like Nottingham Forest were more on his level.
What they didn't know was that Slot was already in talks with Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes and an agreement was almost reached, but he remained silent to avoid a repeat of his regrets with AZ.
At that moment he had to read that his future team was linked to a club legend. Xabi Alonsoand the disappointment of the fans when the Spaniard did not arrive. Encouraged again, Slot ensured that his name was once again respected.
The manager has somehow made Liverpool even better after Klopp's departure and, as Gouka explains, 'Slot-bal' is already in full effect.
“I think what you're already seeing is what Slot is all about,” he said. “He always says he wants to create a good chance, more than half a chance, so you have to be patient with the ball, and that's the big difference.
“At Feyenoord that changed in just a few weeks. He likes to press high and have defenders high in midfield, but the main thing is patience.
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“There were high expectations because Liverpool have a good team, but if you put Arne Slot on the training ground, he will work it out with the players, everyone says that if you give him six weeks to work on a system, they will get better and better.”
The question now is, with Slot's career constantly progressing, what happens when things start to go wrong?
So far it's been smooth sailing on Merseyside, and with Slot being a master of press conferences, many are wondering how long this will last.
“In Holland it was the same,” Gouka revealed. “We always said we wanted to see what it was like when he lost three times in a row, but he never did.
“So we also asked him, 'You're always calm and collected, but what happens when you lose three in a row?' and he said 'well, I never did' and laughed.
“That's what a lot of opponents say about him, but he always leads the conversations, he always explains, he doesn't get angry, so I don't think he will change even if he starts losing.”
Well, one way or another, we're probably going to find out. Or we won't and we will witness one of the best new coaches of the modern era.
Let's see what Guardiola thinks on Sunday night…
'Slot-bol' by Mikos Gouka is now available to purchase HEREand an English version is expected to be produced in the new year.
