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“It’s got stomach.”

In the south east of the city, outside the Feyenoord Stadium, known more commonly as De Kuip, there was so much stomach in discussions about Arne Slot, the flesh disguised parts of the lower body.

Slot will leave the club for Liverpool this summer having secured the KNVB Cup (Dutch FA Cup) last month.



Across three seasons in Rotterdam, he has also guided Feyenoord to the Europa Conference League final and, more importantly, won the Eredivisie title this time last year for only the second time since 1999.

Supporters prepare for another Slot victory (Simon Hughes)

It depends on who you speak to because, among the club’s febrile largely working-class fanbase, there was a range of opinions about Slot, what he has achieved with Feyenoord and what he may or may not do at Liverpool as they queued in the afternoon sunshine, waiting for the stadium’s gates to open two hours before kick-off against PEC Zwolle.

There tended to be an agreement that he would get a beery send-off when Feyenoord face Excelsior here in a couple of weeks, but it is unlikely to be the sort of religious experience that Anfield will witness when Jurgen Klopp exits Liverpool following eight and a half years.

Inside Klopp’s departure from Liverpool…

Something linked Slot’s cynics — they all looked a bit like him, men of middle age with no hair, whose lives appear to be devoted to the welfare of Feyenoord and nothing else.

“Slot has been here less time of course, just three seasons, but I am not happy with the way this was handled,” says Paul, a season ticket holder at Feyenoord of 32 seasons and a warehouse worker in Rotterdam’s port, the biggest in Europe.

He talks about Slot’s arrival at Feyenoord in 2021, having been booted out of AZ Alkmaar when they were unbeaten in the league for supposedly being distracted after holding talks with… Feyenoord.

Surely he can’t be that surprised that talks were happening with Liverpool before a financial package was agreed with the club he supports?

Had Feyenoord not won the KNVB Cup on April 21 and it emerged that Slot was plotting a move away before that date, he thinks a lot of Feyenoord fans would be feeling as he does right now, “quite a bit let down” — but as it turned out, Feyenoord beat NEC Nijmegen 1-0 and the following morning, the odds on Slot moving to Liverpool were slashed.

Some of Paul’s mates chirp in.

“This Feyenoord team has played better football than all of the teams from recent eras.”

The pair acknowledge that Slot made a “lot of improvements” at Feyenoord, a club that is helpless whenever an offer comes from abroad, particularly from the Premier League or the Bundesliga, for one of its players or, in this case, its head coach.

Many Feyenoord supporters seem to be philosophical about Slot’s departure.

They accept the flow of traffic and that means they don’t get hung up about the manner of any departure.

“That’s just the way it is,” says Dennis, as he stands beside his father, Gerard, before admitting that his second favourite club behind Feyenoord is, in fact, Liverpool.

Gerard and Dennis outside Feyenoord’s stadium (Simon Hughes)

Dennis, now in his fifties, started following Liverpool because he saw shared values, “defined by hard-working people”.

Slot has had the stomach for Rotterdam but does he have the stomach for Liverpool, where the interest in him will be far greater, in a league where few Dutch coaches have done particularly well?

“He will make it at Liverpool,” Dennis declares confidently.

I am conflicted because I’d like him to be at both clubs.”

Reporters who have been travelling backwards and forwards to Rotterdam from Britain since Slot emerged as Liverpool’s leading candidate a fortnight ago suggest that, while his football is closer to Pep Guardiola’s style, his personality is similar to Klopp — but the Dutchman chooses his words more carefully.

You can see the Guardiola side, certainly in how Feyenoord treated possession against Zwolle like it was the ark of the covenant.

In truth, they ambled into a 2-0 half-time lead having done barely anything worth writing about but scoring.

Yet with that lead, Slot became more adventurous and a 4-3-3 became more of a 3-2-4-1, similar to the system Guardiola used at Manchester City in the 2022-23 treble season.

Those who speak enthusiastically about Slot’s vision say he melds styles and, in the second half, right-back Lutsharel Geertruida acted as a cross between John Stones and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Geertruida and Slot of Feyenoord celebrate victory (Photo: Geert van Erven/Soccrates/Getty Images)

Though there was discipline in Geertruida’s play, it seemed as though he had a free role at times.

Arne loves to attack and that attack makes you strong in defence.”

After Slot strode in, he spoke for nearly twenty minutes, which, by Premier League standards, is an incredibly generous amount of time.

He admitted to seeing some of the game at Anfield until Mohamed Salah gave Liverpool the lead against Tottenham Hotspur, in what transpired to be a 4-2 victory.
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