Liverpool’s move for the Feyenoord coach, Arne Slot, has been described by Ajax fans as “the best news of the year”. Troubled Ajax have been blown away this season, losing 4-0 at home and 6-0 away against their arch-rivals.
So superior were Feyenoord in every area – tactics, intensity, power, unity, intelligence – that it could have been worse for Ajax. Only in their finishing might Feyenoord have done better.
Their growth over the past three seasons bears the signature of Slot, who came to the club in 2021. When he arrived, Feyenoord were in a situation similar to Ajax’s now: they had finished fifth (Ajax’s position), had no money or remaining prestige and had embarrassed themselves in the Europa League, losing twice to Austria’s Wolfsberger. Players were not fit, there was uncertainty about the style of play, and their captain and top scorer Steven Berghuis had left (for Ajax). In short, there was no real hope.
Slot has changed everything. In his first season, with a mix of revitalised, loaned and cheap players, Feyenoord reached the Europa Conference League final before losing narrowly to Roma.
That campaign marked the start of Orkun Kökcü’s transformation, perhaps the best example of Slot’s impact. The Turkey international had never fulfilled his talent but realised if he wanted to survive in Slot’s high-speed game he had to become fitter, better and more versatile. Kökcü lifted the Eredivisie trophy in Slot’s second season, as captain, and within a month his transfer to Benfica had earned Feyenoord a record fee of €25m plus add-ons.
This season, Feyenoord could end with more points than when taking that title and have won the KNVB Cup. Barring an improbable set of results they will finish second behind PSV and qualify again for the Champions League. They provide more players for the Netherlands (Mats Wieffer, Quinten Timber, Quilindschy Hartman, Lutsharel Geertruida) than any other club.
Slot is an overachiever who can spark a revolution. In many respects he resembles Jürgen Klopp. He is intelligent, relies on attacking football and high pressing, is didactically strong, surrounds himself with skilled assistants, brings wit into his media dealings and is searingly ambitious. His voice in transfer politics has grown at Feyenoord.
Just like Klopp, Slot did not make a big impression as a player. He was a slow, old-fashioned No 10 who played at mediocre clubs (PEC Zwolle, NAC Breda and Sparta Rotterdam).
Slot grew up in Bergentheim, a small village in the Netherlands’ so-called Bible belt. Ali Boussaboun, a former teammate at NAC, says: “I never heard him swear, never heard him say goddamn. In that self-control I could already see a coach.”
The “good guy” from the small village was toughened at NAC most notably by Henk ten Cate, a streetwise former assistant coach at Barcelona and Chelsea. “Ten Cate demanded more aggressiveness,” Boussaboun says. “Arne had to stretch his limits to the maximum at NAC and even then he did not always play.”
After Slot retired as a player in 2013, he considered studying but started a company selling captain’s armbands with his brother Jakko while working as a youth coach at PEC. The coaching grew on him, which is perhaps no coincidence. From the age of five he had spent Saturdays listening in changing rooms to how his father, Arend, a school teacher, instructed the amateur teams he coached.
Slot, a perfectionist and control freak, has built an impressive football media library of documentation and images of “interesting things”. He constantly tries to widen his horizons, even by watching games at a local basketball club.
Everybody with an interest in football who visits Slot can’t wait for the coach to open his laptop to “just briefly” show a new discovery. At which point he can easily go on for an hour or so about the places Manchester City send in the most crosses, the way teams coached by Jorge Sampaoli put pressure on their opponents or Napoli’s buildup play.
AZ gave Slot his first chance as a head coach, in 2019, and after impressive attacking wins at Feyenoord (3-0), PSV (4-0) and Ajax (2-0) comparisons were drawn to Louis van Gaal. AZ finished joint top with Ajax under Slot in the season cut short by Covid.
He has said of his philosophy: “I want as many good football players as possible in the team and I want to make them work as hard as possible. I believe that when we work to perfect our habits every day, we have more chance to cut out luck.”
That his teams are almost always a joy to watch is important to Slot. During press conferences he sometimes asks whether someone has watched Manchester City or Liverpool the day before. “There are two people who have really enriched football in recent decades, who have never disappointed me,” he said two years ago. “Those are Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola.
“Messi has everything. Guardiola’s teams always play good, dominant, well-thought-out football. Then of course you have Jürgen Klopp. Manchester City-Liverpool for me is the ultimate game.”
His idolisation of the way Guardiola lets his teams play provoked José Mourinho to such an extent that he snapped at Slot last April after Roma had beaten Feyenoord in the Europa League: “You should watch Roma instead of City or Napoli.”
Mourinho later said Slot was “a great coach” and Marco van Basten, the Dutch legend and former Netherlands and Ajax coach agrees. “I’ve spoken to him a few times and what he does and how he sees the game is very impressive,” he said on the Dutch football talkshow Rondo.
“He gets along very well with the group of players, has excellent tactical skills, can explain things well and is calm and intelligent. I think he can go to any club, even the very difficult clubs, because he is so intelligent.”
Van Basten sees no reason for Slot to fear failure. “If you get AZ and Feyenoord to play [good] football, you will also get the big clubs to play [good] football. I think it would only become easier for him because you have better players who understand what you want sooner. They are often also more stubborn players, but I think Slot is smart enough to manage that.”
