Arne Slot on why he chose Liverpool, a new contract and how long he could stay at club
Arne Slot on the charm offensive that brought him to Anfield, a potential new contract and why he feels he can create a dynasty in charge at Liverpool
As Arne Slot prepares to chat before Sunday's crowning glory at Anfield, it feels fitting the Liverpool boss is clutching an encyclopedia about the club he has just guided to its 20th league title.
It's unclear if the book, which was given as a gift at the AXA Training Centre on Friday, charts the progress made during his wildly spectacular 24/25 campaign on Merseyside.
But what is obvious, on the eve of Slot and his players picking up their Premier League winners' medals in front of 60,000 fans, is that the comprehensive read - given to him by LFCHistory's Arnie Baldursson - will need some Slot-centric chapters adding to it in the coming years.
In a world where it has become increasingly rare for managers to become long-serving stalwarts at the clubs that employ them, Slot can see a world where he emulates the likes of Pep Guardiola, whose new contract will take him past a decade of service at Manchester City.
Or, dare it be said, like his predecessor Jurgen Klopp, whose nine-year stint in the Anfield hotseat saw him lift every major trophy available while establishing an almost unbreakable bond with supporters along the way.
"That's hard to say [but] I could see it, yes," Slot says. "But I think in general the football world has changed. There are not many managers that stay at a club for nine years because nine out of 10 times the board or someone at the club isn't happy at a certain moment anymore.
"That has changed a lot over the course of the last few years, in England especially. This club has a history of having managers for a long time and we also saw that with Arsene Wenger at Arsenal and Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.
"But I think in general, in football and in life, there is not so much patience. Maybe England is an exception. So I could see myself working here for a long time because it's a great club to work for and I'm really happy over here.
“That is probably true (that winning the league helps). It is definitely true that I am working at a club where managers work for a long time. And not only this club, but also with regards ownership, because I'm now watching a documentary about the Boston Red Sox, and FSG is also in the Boston Red Sox.
"There, Alex Cora is the name, I’m not too sure, but I think he finished last in the first two seasons and he is still there. It is a combination of the history of the club and how the ownership works.
"So yes, it is a different time, but if there is ever a club where you can work for multiple years, it will probably be Liverpool.
“I could see [myself staying a long time like Guardiola], but it is kind of arrogant to say it if you have only been here a year that you will be here for nine years. I don’t think it will be enough if after five years I say: ‘Do remember that in my first year I won the league title.’
“Maybe it is different in the modern era and compared to other clubs, but the reason Pep is there for nine years and Jurgen was here for nine years is that they both won a lot as well.
"Maybe that is not the [main] reason, but it is a reason. This club might be an exception to the new world we are living in.”
In order to establish that sort of Anfield dynasty, though, a contract extension will have to form part of the conversation at some stage. Now heading into the second of a three-year agreement penned after agreeing to move from Feyenoord, the prospect of the club opening negotiations with his agent, Raffaela Pimenta, might appeal.
As he has done throughout the campaign where those sorts of discussions are concerned, however, Slot plays the straightest of bats, refusing to become embroiled in a contract saga of his own, having only recently found a resolution to the futures of Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold, who will join Real Madrid before the start of next season.
Slot says: "I think you are not going to be surprised about my answer. I always try to stay away from that [speculation], I would say completely but as much as I can. So off the record is the same as on the record.
"I don't talk about contracts in public and I like that so much because if you start to talk so much off the record, your life is going to be much harder. I will always say on and off the record the same. So I say nothing or what I think I should say."
Liverpool's data-led approach to honing in on Klopp's replacement guided them to Slot 13 months ago, with an exhaustive search for the vaunted German's successor taking sporting director Richard Hughes to Rotterdam, where the then 45-year-old was finishing as a runner-up to PSV in the Eredivisie.
The Reds boss admits he was blown away by the level of detail that went into Liverpool's charm offensive and it something that was initially started by former sporting director Julian Ward, who used his contacts in the game to visit Feyenoord on what has since been revealed to be little more than a fact-finding mission.
"There was never one second of a doubt and that had largely to do with the fact why they wanted me and how they tried to convince me to come," he says. "So I didn't have to open my laptop one time to show them what I did or how I worked.
"They knew everything about me. Journalists in Holland wrote wrongly that I was one of the three or four candidates, but from the start it was clear to me. I told my agent that if I am one of three (candidates), then I am not interested.
"I'm only interested if they want me as the only one, because I didn't want to go into another summer where I had to do all these kinds of meetings and then waiting, waiting, waiting.
"My time at Feyenoord was too good. So that's why I had no doubts because they were so clear that Liverpool wanted to have me, and they knew everything about me. Immediately it was ‘okay’.
“I don't think [Hughes] showed me everything, but he knew many, many, many games and many of the assessments I've made during games, the changes I made in tactics.
"Julian, I think that it's known as well, he visited the (Feyenoord) training ground, so he spoke with a lot of people trying to get some knowledge for the club and how I worked over there.
"He spoke with multiple people, so there was not a stone unturned, as I know now because this is also the way we try to bring players in. It is a thorough process.”
But having reportedly turned down an approach from new Europa League holders Tottenham in the summer of 2023, what was it about Liverpool's advances that was enough to uproot Slot from his Rotterdam home and send him to Merseyside while his family remained in their homeland?
“The arguments I just gave and the history of the club and the chance of going to a club where you can also win things," Slot says. "Every manager that works in Holland would like to go to the Premier League and, if you can, go to a club where you can win something.
"The two main reasons, apart from the history and winning, was what I just said."
Slot need only look into his new encyclopaedia to find that history of winning he speaks of. On Sunday, it will be his turn to enter the record books.