Arne Slot's job is safe as FSG give Liverpool boss chance to show famous day is the norm

Two years ago this week, as Jurgen Klopp entered his final weeks at Anfield, Liverpool were preparing to usher in the Arne Slot era.

An agreement struck with Feyenoord, which was made public on April 26, 2024, set in the motion the thrashing out of the specifics between the clubs as Slot awaited confirmation that his dream move would become his reality.

"It seems clear to me that I would like to work there," the Dutchman said at the time. "The clubs are negotiating, so I am still on hold.

"We have to wait until an agreement is reached, but I have every confidence in that. I believe that Feyenoord will let me join Liverpool as it would be a massive step for me."

FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE! All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook page

Within a month, Klopp was chanting the name of his replacement on the Anfield turf as the German said his goodbyes on an emotional afternoon in front of over 60,000 people.

It was an unusual way for a club the size of Liverpool to all but confirm their new coach's arrival, but it was delivered in an almost trademark fashion from a demob-happy Klopp, who, by that point, was humorously going off-script and doing as he pleased.

Inside 12 months of news that they had struck the deal with Feyenoord to take Slot as their new boss, the Reds were celebrating one of their most famous days at Anfield as they were crowned champions of England for a 20th time.

A 5-1 hammering of Tottenham Hotspur, who had the distraction of a Europa League final on the horizon, was the perfect prelude to one of the most joyous afternoons the famous venue had ever seen, as Slot's side was crowned the best in the land.

The party that evening, exactly one year ago today, continued until about 3am inside the Carlsberg Dugout in the Main Stand. It was an informal affair, with the players still draped in their specially-designed 'Champions 20' T-shirts. It was more red collar than black tie, say those privileged enough to have attended.

From day one, Slot conducted a masterclass in man-management, improving the right players at the right time to elevate the strong squad that Klopp had bequeathed to him to another level.

At the time, it looked like Slot was set to join the established order of dugout genius so celebrated on the Kop.

April 27 last year marked the start of the summer-long party on Merseyside. Title lifts and trophy parades followed the month after as the head coach and his players deservedly soaked up the acclaim of a remarkable campaign that few had predicted when he initially succeeded the inspirational Klopp.

Many, at the time, had in fact talked about an inevitable hangover from the glittering period under the previous manager. Its arrival, in hindsight, has perhaps been delayed.

Slot finds himself in much different territory now. The end of April 2026 feels like a sharp contrast for the Reds boss, who has waded through a difficult and at times dramatic campaign with questions still lingering.

Qualification for next season's Champions League - which will be confirmed with six points from the final four matches, against Manchester United, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Brentford - is now looking like a safer bet than it has all season. That, though, will be scant consolation.

In many ways, a recent run of three successive victories has prevented May from being a make-or-break month for their entire campaign against the teams with whom they are battling to finish as the 'best of the rest' behind title rivals Arsenal and Manchester City.

Liverpool, who now occupy fourth ahead of Sunday's trip to United, are in a strong position as the final month of the season approaches, but confirming their participation in next season's Champions League won't be viewed as a marker of success. It has always been the minimum basic requirement for a club have seemingly budgeted for its inclusion in Europe's most lucrative campaign.

Slot will point to a myriad of reasons why his team have under-performed from where they found themselves this time last year, but explanations quickly start to sound like excuses at a club the size of the Reds.

Injuries, of course, have bitten hard at times but while there has been great misfortune for the likes of Conor Bradley, Wataru Endo and £204m strike duo Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak, the list of absentees has never reached the sort of darkly comic levels it did at times in recent years.

Slot's main problem, in fact, has been a lack of numbers at a club who were too willing to shed all of their fringe players last summer.

Slot has always professed that Liverpool don't keep players against their wishes, meaning anyone who wanted to depart - Darwin Nunez, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Diaz, to name three - were allowed to. Harvey Elliott is another example.

But fetching relatively sizable sums for squad players like Ben Doak, Tyler Morton and even Jarell Quansah means the group now has too few players who can raise similar capital this summer.

If the Reds must 'sell-to-buy' - as Slot claimed after the Champions League exit to Paris Saint-Germain earlier this month - which players would they realistically be comfortable selling? It looks likely that some first-team stars may find their futures in question to help fund the next stage of the rebuild.

Slot may bemoan bad luck on the injury front - the suspected hamstring problem casting a shadow over Mohamed Salah's final weeks at Anfield is an example - but the list has never been extraordinary at a club of Liverpool's size. Too many of the deputies simply haven't gained enough trust.

A recurring theme of the season is the general level of performance, regardless of results. Seventeen defeats across all competitions is unacceptable, a fact captain Virgil van Dijk has admitted on several occasions in his honest, post-match dissections.

But what has been most striking is that, aside from a few high points in some of the more glamorous fixtures of the campaign, the Reds' general displays have all carried the same ponderous flaws.

Slot admitted it was tough to hear earlier this year that his brand of football this season may be deemed as 'boring' but supporters can generally stomach defeats slightly easier when a firebrand style of football has them on the edges of the seat when at its best. That hasn't been the case even nearly enough this season.

It's expected that Slot's end-of-season grading will keep him in his current position. Club owners Fenway Sports Group, who have made big changes at the Boston Red Sox, are determined to allow their head coach the time and space to prove why April 2025 is the norm and April 2026 is the exception.

But the margin for error will be smaller the further away the club gets from that famous day this time last year.

Click here to read article