Arne Slot on his relationship with Richard Hughes, Michael Edwards and FSG’s reaction to Liverpool’s start this season
If continuity this season has come from a virtually unchanged playing staff, the excellent start to Arne Slot’s life at Liverpool is all the more impressive for the huge transition that has taken place behind the scenes this year. While Slot has been the obvious point of discussion, following his succession of Jurgen Klopp, there were also several other moving parts at executive level.
Michael Edwards, the former sporting director, replaced Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon as the defacto head of the club on a day to day basis.
Gordon was known as the most hands-on of owners FSG when it came to matters on Merseyside, with the Milwaukee native in regular contact with Klopp during their time working together.
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The pair enjoyed an excellent relationship and conversed almost daily about all matters at Anfield, so the major question was how Edwards would continue such good practices in his newly-formed role as FSG’s ‘CEO of football’ in a dynamic that included a new manager – or ‘head coach’ – in Slot and a fresh face in the sporting director role too.
Following confirmation of the vaunted Edwards‘s return to Liverpool in March, Richard Hughes was quickly headhunted from Bournemouth to become the first full-time sporting director since Julian Ward had walked away a year earlier after a short stint in a position that must be considered as one of the most demanding off-the-field jobs in the European game.
With Slot and Hughes marking their six-month anniversaries at the club next week, November’s international break felt like an opportune time to assess just how the new power axis is operating and, with 15 wins from his first 17 games heading into this weekend’s trip to Southampton, it could hardly have gone much better for head coach Slot, whose side currently sit top of both the Premier League and Champions League.
With Hughes instructed to preside over wider issues within the football operations department – such as contract issues of key players like Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold and negotiations on transfers – Slot has been able to instead train his focus on the minutiae of coaching. From the outside looking in, it would appear as though the new-look structure is flourishing, if going off results on the pitch alone, that is.
On his working partnership with Hughes, Slot says: “[Contact] is not on a daily basis but it is the same every month. I have had a very good relationship from the start with Richard, which is one of the reasons why I loved to join the club.
“I have talked about the fans and the players we have, but if the relationship with the sporting director is not the best you will not go – but it was the contrary of that because I had a good feeling from the start about the person and definitely about the professional.
“It is the same with Michael Edwards and everyone, but the main one I communicate with is Richard. Of course, sometimes there is a bit of contact with the others (FSG) but there is a clear hierarchy and I speak mostly to Richard.”
Slot suggests that interaction with FSG themselves remains limited to date and with the American owners admitting this week “we have our hands full” when asked about a purchase of NBA champions, the Celtics, it’s a claim that is a sincere one given the plates that are continually being spun in the Boston boardroom of John W Henry and Co.
Asked if he has received any messages of approval directly from his paymasters after such a remarkable beginning to life in the Anfield hotseat, Slot added: “Yeah, but we are all aware of the fact we are only 11 games into the season and will not get carried away.
“It is not like this is the first time in Liverpool history we have been top of the league. I don’t think the owners will get carried away. I am for sure not getting carried away, and the players will not as well.
“I could assume [FSG] are happy, not just because of the results, but because of the way we have played, mainly the playing style and the results that come from that. The playing style is as expected and that is the positive thing.”
Liverpool head into the weekend with a five-point advantage at the summit of the Premier League and will know what they have to do to either preserve or extend their lead over a Manchester City side who suffered four straight defeats in all competitions for the first time under Pep Guardiola prior to the break in play.
The champions host Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday evening but talk of title tilts and who is best placed to win the Premier League as it all stands is “boring” to the Liverpool boss. Slot, in fact, referenced a previous gap between City and then leaders Arsenal, which was eventually clawed back by Guardiola, who welcomes Spurs to the Etihad fresh from penning a new two-year contract.
“I don’t talk about favourites,” Slot says. “It is boring but I just talk about the next game, which is a challenge in itself. I have said many times that in the Premier League the margins are very small. That is true all season.
“Last season I followed the league and there was a moment when City were eight points behind Arsenal, so there is no use in getting carried away at all at this moment in time.
“These teams like City, Arsenal and Chelsea and even Manchester United and all the others are able to put together a run of games like we did. So we are not getting carried away at all and looking at it like you just said in terms of favourites or whatever.
“The players know what they have to do to win a game, and it’s a lot. If they could give 50% less and still win, maybe we would think we have 50% extra in the tank and not need to give our maximum for results. But we know it has been a close call in many games.
“It is completely normal [the players] thought [about how it might go under me], they didn’t just have nine years with the former manager, they had nine successful years. Then you always wonder ‘are things going to change?’
“In the summer, we didn’t bring that many new players, so then it is quite normal if you look at the ones we are competition with did bring in players, it is normal for them to think ‘what is going to happen this season’. Especially because nearly all of them were on holiday two weeks before the season started.
“But that is why it was really helpful and useful we got results from the start and they saw from the start the playing style didn’t change that much. So that combination of things helped. It would be weird if not all of them felt what you felt, that is completely normal.”
