It is usual, after a club has enjoyed a sustained period of success under a talented, charismatic, populist manager, for that club to enter a period of decline and disarray when that manager leaves.
Manchester United are still dealing with the aftershocks of the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson 13 years after he left. Arsenal struggled to move on from Arsene Wenger and are only now challenging for the title again.
Liverpool know all about this syndrome, too. They achieved unprecedented success through the Boot Room years with a series of managers brought up together in the traditions of the club, from Bill Shankly to Bob Paisley to Joe Fagan to Kenny Dalglish.
But when Dalglish, emotionally exhausted after the traumas of Hillsborough, left the club in 1991, and the chain was broken, it was three decades until Liverpool won the league title again, under the inspirational leadership of Jurgen Klopp.
Klopp was the manager at Anfield for the best part of a decade and when he left in the summer of 2024, it was widely expected his departure would herald a time of uncertainty and struggle. Liverpool had finished fifth in 2022-23 and third in 2023-24, Klopp’s final season, and it was clear that they were heading towards a rebuild whether Klopp stayed or left. Klopp left and was replaced by Arne Slot.
And Slot, frankly, performed a miracle on Merseyside. He took Klopp’s ageing team and he improved it. He defied all expectations that Liverpool would enter a period of decline and he led them to the league title.
Last season, Arne Slot defied all expectations that Liverpool would enter a period of decline and he led them to the league title
Liverpool’s Boot Room Boys – Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Ronnie Moran, Joe Fagan and Reuben Bennett – laid the foundations that kept the club successful for generations
He did it with calmness and he did it with cleverness and he did it with class. Football management is an egotistical business but Slot was always keen to give Klopp credit for what was achieved. It was one of the things that made Slot stand out. It was one of the reasons why it makes me laugh now when I hear people saying that Slot is out of his depth at Liverpool and that he cannot cope and that he should be fired.
Sure, Liverpool may be struggling this season but they are still way ahead of the curve when it comes to their recovery from the departure of Klopp. The fact is, Slot’s way ahead of the curve, too. He deserves credit, not brickbats, for the job he’s done.
This season, Liverpool are having the season everyone predicted they would have last season. Slot’s brilliance as a coach, his intuition and his lack of ego, postponed the inevitable for 12 months and now they are wrestling with the full fury of transition.
I’m sorry, but once again, I don’t think Slot is getting the credit he deserves even for this season. Look at what he’s been up against. Most of all, one of his most popular players, one of his first-team regulars, Diogo Jota was killed in a car crash a few weeks before the start of the season.
Imagine the trauma of that. Imagine the trauma of it in any workplace. Someone that young, someone that popular, someone with young kids, being taken away like that. Andrew Robertson said, on the night Scotland qualified for the World Cup last November, that he couldn’t get Jota out of his head all through the game. James Milner, who has moved on to Brighton, changed his shirt to wear Jota’s No 20 in tribute.
That’s not going away in a few months. If Liverpool sometimes look exhausted, that’s one of the reasons why. The truth is – and many said this soon after Jota’s accident – their season was over before it began.
Add to that the fact that Slot lost Trent Alexander-Arnold, one of his best players, to Real Madrid. And he lost Luis Diaz, another of his best players to Bayern Munich. And he lost Mohamed Salah, another of his best players, to old Father Time.
And yes, Liverpool spent £450million in the summer but history teaches you that new players, especially from foreign leagues, do not hit the ground running. Florian Wirtz is a wonderful player but he has struggled with the physicality of the Premier League this season. We will only see the best of him next season. Alexander Isak, the most expensive purchase of all, has been injured for most of the season.
Slot lost Mohamed Salah (left), another of his best players, to old Father Time – the Egyptian has just five league goals this season after scoring at least 18 in every other on Merseyside
Imagine the trauma of Diogo Jota’s death. Imagine the trauma of it in any workplace. Someone that young, someone that popular, someone with young kids, being taken away like that
Call these excuses if you want. I’d rather call them extenuating circumstances but, of course, it is sobering for Liverpool fans to see their team overwhelmed as they were overwhelmed by Manchester City for all but the first 30 minutes of their FA Cup quarter-final at the Etihad on Saturday.
And more stinging volleys of criticism and doubt and despair will be aimed in Slot’s direction if, as is widely expected, Liverpool suffer a new reverse when they play the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against European champions Paris Saint-Germain in the Parc des Princes on Wednesday night. Some will call, again, for Slot to be fired if that happens. They are entitled to their view.
Mine is that Slot has done a fine job just to get Liverpool to the last eight. They are, after all, one of only two English teams to reach this stage. With everything that has been thrown at him and the club, it is to his credit that Liverpool are still in the hunt for a place in the top five in the Premier League.
If they get that place, if they qualify for the Champions League next season after the death of Jota, after all the other challenges the club has faced, after losing a manager as influential as Klopp, after facing up to the loss of Salah, after rebuilding the side, then Liverpool will be set for a return to success next season.
Slot did a magnificent job last season. This season, he is holding Liverpool together as the club sails through a storm. Cut him some slack.
Filleted on the south coast but Arsenal have bigger fish to fry
I was at St Mary’s on Saturday night to see Arsenal knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship side Southampton, a defeat which spawned a new flood of predictions that Mikel Arteta’s side are about to lose their nerve in their Premier League title race with Manchester City.
I understand that schadenfreude makes it tempting to follow that narrative and that many are desperate to see Arsenal fail because it is fun mocking their title drought.
But Arsenal started Saturday’s tie with what amounted to a second team and even though Southampton were excellent, it is hard to extrapolate from Arsenal’s defeat reasons why they are about to blow the league.
Though Southampton were excellent on Saturday, it is hard to extrapolate from Arsenal’s defeat reasons why they are about to blow the league
You can even forget the Champions League quarter-final first leg against Sporting in Lisbon on Tuesday evening. All that matters is beating Bournemouth at home on Saturday lunchtime. If they do that, losing in the FA Cup at St Mary’s will matter little to Arteta and his players.
Have Chelsea got their priorities right?
It was good to see Liam Rosenior asserting his authority at Stamford Bridge by imposing a two-game suspension on Enzo Fernandez for his repeated overtures to Real Madrid and it was good to see the Chelsea hierarchy backing the head coach.
But it does not change the fact that Chelsea, under BlueCo, have become a strange club.
When Fernandez sings racist songs about France’s black players when he is on duty with Argentina, Chelsea make him vice-captain. When he flirts with Real Madrid, they ban him. I can’t quite make it add up.
