Jurgen Klopp’s slow death march is a boost for next man in Liverpool hotseat as Arne Slot edges closer to deal
RARELY can the wearing of a half-and-half scarf be justified.
Particularly on the occasion of a passionate Merseyside derby with so much at stake for Everton and Liverpool.
Yet if Arne Slot wrapped his neck in red and blue, while squirrelled away in his Rotterdam living room this week, it would be just about acceptable, if not advisable.
Replacing outgoing Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp at the end of this season must be exhilarating — but slightly more terrifying for anyone being seriously considered for the job.
Feyenoord chief Slot, 45, has emerged as the No 1 candidate and while it’s the opportunity of a lifetime, it is also one of the toughest gigs going.
Klopp has won seven big trophies in eight years but, moreover, restored a sense of entitlement at Anfield.
The feeling that the club is back where it belongs among football’s top feeders.
Even if the imposing German was only half his 6ft 3in, those would be big shoes to fill.
Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat at Everton has torpedoed the Reds’ title hopes.
And, with them, romantic Scouse visions of Klopp, 56, being carried shoulder high through the Shankly Gates with a second Premier League winner’s medal hanging off him.
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Overnight, the team looks weary and in need of a makeover similar to the manager’s cosmetic tooth job and laser eye surgery.
But doom for Klopp is delight for Slot.
It is now odds-on that the man who has come to symbolise the renaissance on red Merseyside will head off into the sunset with only the Carabao Cup to go with his carriage clock.
And how much easier that makes it for Slot — or whoever takes over — to pick up the baton.
Who wants the job of trying to lead the Kop giants into an entirely new era when the trophy cabinet is bulging with bright, shiny new trinkets?
Nobody wants to follow on from a legend.
Whichever massively underpaid no mark eventually takes on my job will find it a breeze — because the only way is up. See what I mean?
David Moyes found out to his cost what it’s like attempting to remould Manchester United in his own image as the successor to Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013.
Every aspect of life at Old Trafford, from the boardroom to boot room, was soaked in the angry old Scot’s DNA.
Even Fergie’s Glaswegian blood brother Moyes felt alien at United.
Just to make it even harder, Britain’s most successful manager signed off in style by winning the Premier League title by a whopping 11 points from Manchester City to assert United’s local dominance.
That’s the stuff of dreams for the bloke being put out to pasture with a trumpet fanfare.
But a nightmare for the man coming in needing to get a new tune out of the same instrument.
Man United still haven’t solved the problem 11 years on.
The next Liverpool gaffer will have to replace Mo Salah, even if the 31-year-old Egyptian goal machine does not bunk off to Saudi Arabia this summer.
He must turn Darwin Nunez, 24, into a consistent threat who doesn’t shrink on big occasions.
Virgil van Dijk is 32 and not the force of nature he once was. The defence needs work with one new centre-back, maybe two.
That’s some to-do list, but far better to come in when the team is at a low ebb to make picking it up that much simpler.
The fact Liverpool are contriving to turn what was a genuine shot at a goodbye quadruple for Klopp into a slow death march should at least make one man happy, at least on the QT.
HAVE A RETHINK
SHOULD Arsenal go on to win the Premier League title, boss Mikel Arteta knows who to thank.
Pundit Craig Burley has been a repeat critic of Kai Havertz this term — pulling no punches in his analysis of the German forward following his £65million move from Chelsea last summer.
The former Blues midfielder said in August: “There is nothing in this Havertz performance or performances that suggest he is any different, not one iota, from the player who was performing for Chelsea.
“The only difference is he’s wearing a red shirt.”
Burley went as far as to urge Arteta to drop Havertz, labelling him the ‘elephant in the room’ regarding Arsenal’s weaknesses.
The Gunners battered Burley and Havertz’s old Blues side 5-0 on Tuesday — with the German netting twice in the second half — to go back to the top of the table.
Havertz has averaged a goal every other game in the past 14 matches and is now considered a cornerstone of a team making huge strides at home and in Europe.
Burley may well have been right in what he said at the start of the season.
But you’d have to pay a fortune for that kind of reverse psychology on Bupa.
BAD VIBE ON AMO
WHAT a shame West Ham’s attempts to land Ruben Amorim as their next manager look to have collapsed.
No surprise there as relations between the Hammers and Amorim’s current club Sporting Lisbon can’t be that warm.
Back in 2017, Sporting infamously labelled West Ham’s porn baron owners David Sullivan and David Gold the “dildo brothers” in a row over a transfer deal.
No way was Europe’s most sought-after coach going to come quietly.
BREWTIFUL GAME, EH?
JOACHIM ANDERSEN and his fellow Crystal Palace players have a WhatsApp group where they discuss their love of coffee.
The defender told GQ magazine: “It’s massive for me. We have some connoisseurs here, you know?
“I’m in a WhatsApp group called ‘Coffee Talk’ and we talk about everything — beans, machines, where to get the best coffee at away games.”
How embarrassing that all is! Whatever happened to good, old-fashioned X-rated pics?
BIGWIGS CAN’T LAY INTO REFS
NOTTINGHAM FOREST have done nothing new.
Football fans have been questioning the integrity of referees for years.
And their assistants and VARs when results don’t go their way.
Often en masse and at great volume with choice words included as part of a chant.
What Forest said on the record last weekend about VAR Stuart Attwell’s allegiance to relegation rivals Luton Town is only what most punters consider ‘bantz’ in the pub.
Fans, like the clubs, are also what we call ‘stakeholders’ in today’s game.
But there is a difference and this is what Forest have forgotten.
Whoever sanctioned the daft statement insinuating Attwell’s judgment could have been swayed by his love of the Hatters reduced themselves to a terrace barrister.
While the club’s threat of legal action because pundit Gary Neville labelled them a ‘mafia gang’ only made it worse.
However frustrating it might be to see your team going down the gurgler, a few people in the inner circle at a top club cannot behave like the 25,000 in the stands.
That’s the price you pay for making football your job.
TOM’S TURN
SO it’s congratulations to Tom Cleverley on his appointment as the new permanent boss of Watford — their 11th in the last six years.
Given the high turnover of managers at Vicarage Road, you have to wonder if they even bother with permanent markers to sign the contracts.