Liverpool announce Arne Slot as new head coach | OneFootball

Liverpool have confirmed the appointment of Arne Slot as their new head coach.

Just 24 hours after Jurgen Klopp bid an emotional farewell to Liverpool fans in his last ever game at Anfield, the German’s successor has been officially announced. Liverpool have had an agreement in place with the former Feyenoord coach for three weeks but opted to delay the announcement until Klopp’s final game.

Feyenoord will receive €9 million (£7.7 million) plus €2 million add-ons in compensation for the services of the Dutchman.

In three seasons with Feyenoord, Slot won the Dutch league and cup and was identified as the ideal candidate by Liverpool’s new background team led by Michael Edwards, new chief executive of football at Fenway Sports Group and Richard Hughes, who is the new sporting director.

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The early frontrunner to replace Klopp was Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso, but the former Liverpool midfielder has decided to stay with the newly crowned Bundesliga champions for at least another season.

Sporting Lisbon manager Ruben Amorim was also heavily linked, but Liverpool eventually decided on Slot for a few reasons. His achievements with AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord, two clubs with inferior spending power compared with PSV and Ajax, was a sign of the Dutchman’s ability to over perform with a relatively modest budget- similar to what Klopp has done during his tenure at Liverpool.

Slot’s style of play is also not too dissimilar to Klopp’s so there will be no need for a tactical overhaul upon his arrival on June 1. The Dutchman also has a track record of improving players and the hope is that he can help aid with developments of players such as Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch next season.

Slot’s assistant at Feyenoord, Sipke Hulshoff, is expected to follow him to Anfield having resigned as the Netherlands’ assistant coach this week to be available for the start of pre-season training with Liverpool.

The start date for pre-season has been brought forward by a week to the beginning of July by Slot.