Etienne Reijnen set to join Liverpool
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It has been a season Liverpool supporters would rather forget. Image Credits: Imago ImagesIt has been a season of noise at Anfield.Disappointing results, a dressing room saga involving their greatest modern player, and a fanbase that spent much of the campaign whispering a name they were never quite ready to say out loud, Xabi Alonso.But Liverpool may have just answered the biggest question of their summer.And they did it without saying a word.The 2025/26 campaign will not go down as one to remember on Merseyside.A title defence that never truly materialised.Fifth in the Premier League with 59 points.
Knocked out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage by PSG, and bundled out of the FA Cup by Manchester City.For a club that lifted the league trophy just twelve months ago, the drop-off has been stark, and supporters have felt every bit of it.Then came the Mohamed Salah situation.The Egyptian king, in his final season at the club after nine extraordinary years, made a social media post that many interpreted as a pointed dig at Arne Slot’s management.It was the kind of noise that, in a calmer season, might have been dismissed. Instead it landed like a flare in a powder keg.Slot, for his part, remained measured.“I don’t really know what it exactly means if you ‘like’ a post,” he said.“What I know, and that is my world, is to see how they train, and I’ve not seen anything different.”Which is what makes the latest development so interesting.According to the Telegraph, Liverpool are understood to be closing in on the appointment of Etienne Reijnen to Slot’s backroom staff.Reijnen, a set-piece specialist and close ally of Slot since their days together at PEC Zwolle and later Feyenoord, left his role at the Dutch club last Sunday.It is understood he has informed those around him that a move to the Premier League is imminent.Slot himself tried to bring Reijnen to Anfield in 2024, only for a work permit issue to block the appointment.The fact that Liverpool are now close to completing the move he always wanted tells its own story.You do not build a manager’s backroom staff around him if you are planning to replace him.Liverpool’s quiet, deliberate move to finally bring in one of Slot’s most trusted colleagues sends a message the club has not yet said publicly, the Dutchman is planning for next season, and so are they.Nothing is confirmed.But the signals are pointing in one direction.
Arne Slot Etienne Reijnen