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He was living proof that one player cannot do his job unless a colleague is doing theirs.

He was always going to be a coach, moving from the playing squad to the coaching staff at PEC Zwolle immediately after his retirement.

“Some players you can see are going to be coaches,” says De Graaf.



He was one of those players who used his time on the pitch as an extended apprenticeship for when he moved to the touchline.

Slot hung up his boots in 2013 after playing for PEC Zwolle and immediately joined the club’s youth academy as a coach.

He then spent three years as a coach at Cambuur, who had just been promoted to the Eredivisie, after which he moved to AZ Alkmaar to be assistant to manager John van den Brom, still only 39 when he took that job.

“Arne is a fantastic person and a fantastic trainer who really let us play football in the style of Manchester City or Barcelona in the good times.”

“He’s as honest as possible, so the players really like him,” says De Graaf.

Nelson enjoyed life under Feyenoord (Pim Waslander/Soccrates/Getty Images)

Slot has not gained the backing of these players just by being straightforward, though.

If you speak to the Feyenoord players — and it doesn’t matter which players — they will tell you that whatever this coach says, it happens.

In particular, the last one is always positive so the players leave their session feeling good about themselves.

Arguably, the player who most benefitted from Slot’s tenure at Feyenoord was Kokcu, who came through the ranks at Feyenoord.

Kokcu (centre) excelled under Arne Slot (ANP via Getty Images)

Previously regarded as a talented but slightly insubstantial No 10, Kokcu came back from Euro 2020 with Turkey to find things had changed.

Kokcu went to the same trainer and, within weeks, had become the worker Slot demanded.

“If you see him now, he’s a modern midfield player,” says Krabbendam.

To illustrate this point, take a look at this touch chart for Kokcu in Feyenoord’s Europa League quarter-final first-leg victory over Roma in April 2023.
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