Arne Slot has reminded critics he’s won the same number of Premier League titles as Jürgen Klopp, after Wayne Rooney suggested the Liverpool manager lacks the same “aura” as his predecessor.
Slot has seen Liverpool slide from triumphing in last season’s title race to the top four/five battle for Champions League qualification in a matter of months—it should be highlighted that Klopp experienced a similar downturn the season after his sole Premier League championship in 2019–20.
But pressure has grown on Slot due to inconsistent results and Rooney suggested that while the Dutchman is a “nice fella,” he doesn’t have “that aura about him” compared to Klopp.
With those comments put to Slot before Liverpool face Nottingham Forest in the Premier League this weekend, he questioned how “fair” making that comparison is.
“The only thing we have in common, Jürgen and me, is that we both won the league—and that’s not too bad, is it? I think the more a manager wins, the more aura he has. That’s in general something.”
Taking that results-based perspective, Slot added: “Last season I had more aura than this season.
“Maybe [Rooney] is the only one who has this opinion … it’s the first time that I heard this but I think it’s fair to say that Jürgen definitely has an aura. I can talk about him, not about myself, but he definitely had that. But a winning manager has an aura as well.”
Slot Predicts Shorter Liverpool Reign Than Klopp
Klopp was Liverpool manager from October 2015 until May 2024, a reign spanning nine seasons, and he was the one who dictated his eventual departure to the club, not the other way around.
Slot has already come under immense scrutiny in just his second year in the job, having overseen earlier this season Liverpool’s worst run of results in more than 70 years.
Over in Manchester, Pep Guardiola is coming to the end of his 10th season in charge of City.
Slot believes it is “harder” to stay in one place for so long now. “There’s so much being said about football, so much more than 10 years ago. The moment you start to lose one or two games now, then there’s much more being spoken about it and much more emphasis on it. So that makes it more difficult. I think the job has become harder because of all the media attention.”
The intense scrutiny and mental fatigue that prompted Guardiola to take a year out of management in 2012, as well as more recently claiming Xavi Hernández at Barcelona, has existed in La Liga far longer. Klopp cited “running out of energy” when his planned Liverpool exit was announced in January 2024 and hasn’t returned to a club management role in almost two years since leaving. Slot now suggests the bigger achievement than trophies for Pep is lasting this long.
“Jürgen did so well, Pep did so well, but the biggest accomplishment is maybe to do this job for 10 years, because it's hard work, I can tell you. Many people work hard, but it's also mentally hard,” he conceded.
It all points towards Slot, who has an initial contract with Liverpool until the end of the 2026–27 season, being long gone before he challenges Klopp’s nine-year stay, which he would surpass were he still at Anfield come the summer of 2033. Right now, that feels an eternity away.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Arne Slot Hits Back at Wayne Rooney’s ‘Aura’ Jibe, Concedes Surprise Admission.
