Liverpool look poised to go on the offensive in order to land Arne Slot as their new manager.
The Reds have been pondering who should come in to replace Jurgen Klopp ever since the end of the January transfer window.
And with just five games now left of Klopp’s reign, FSG finally look ready to act. They will reportedly ‘move fast’ to tie up a deal to bring Slot from Feyenoord this week.
There are plenty of reasons to be excited about the 45-year-old, although the jury will very much be out on whether he’s good enough to step into Klopp’s shoes.
Nevertheless, Slot is now quite clearly Liverpool’s first choice option. That perhaps hadn’t always been the case though, as an interesting overnight update from journalist Fabrizio Romano alludes to.
Who else were Liverpool targeting with Arne Slot
It can be easy to get sucked into all the reports we’ve seen since the news about Slot first came out yesterday.
The tone of them has appeared to suggest that Slot was always the first choice candidate amongst the Anfield hierarchy.
However, taking to his YouTube channel yesterday, Romano claims that Liverpool were actually talking to Ruben Amorim up until a week or ten days ago. With Amorim now said to be off the table, it would be interesting to know why.
“Between Ruben Amorim and Liverpool, what’s happening?” posed the transfer expert. “Some media reported in recent weeks that everything was verbally agreed between Amorim and Liverpool. I’m told that this was never the case.
“Amorim had conversations and talks with Liverpool but never had an agreement with Liverpool. But now it looks difficult, unlikely. The situation is in standby already since last week. No fresh contacts between Liverpool and Amorim.
“So, active talks with Arne Slot, no direct contacts with Amorim in the last seven, ten days.”
Why did Liverpool ends talks with Ruben Amorim
It’s possible that we’ll never really know exactly what went on between Amorim and Liverpool. In many ways, the 39-year-old seemed like the ideal appointment for the Reds.
With his Sporting team on the verge of a second league title in four years, Amorim looked poised to make the step up.
It’s obviously possible that Liverpool were also talking to Slot at the same time and always preferred the Feyenoord boss. But we just don’t buy that.
Amorim is the outstanding candidate on paper. He must have been ahead in the running. Perhaps there was some disagreement over vision with Michael Edwards, or maybe it was a monetary issue.
Perhaps one day we’ll find out. But for now it’s full steam ahead of Slot.