James Pearce has provided Liverpool fans with his latest information on Liverpool’s pursuit of Arne Slot.
Negotiations have commenced with Feyenoord regarding the 45-year-old, with the Eredivisie club rejecting an initial offer of €9m (£7.7m) for their manager, who’s understood to be quite keen on the prospect of taking over from Jurgen Klopp.
The Athletic journalist was speaking on the Daily Football Briefing podcast when he outlined that the compensation figure that LFC might have to pay is significantly higher than the €10m (£8.6m) which had been reported in some quarters.
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Pearce outlined: “The latest is that Liverpool remain in negotiations with Feyenoord over a compensation package for their manager Arne Slot. As we’ve reported, Liverpool’s initial offer of around €9m was rejected.
“We understand that Feyenoord have been holding out for a figure much closer to €15m [£12.8m]. Slot still has two years left on his contract, no release clause, and of course they don’t want to lose him.
“What we do know is that Slot is very enthusiastic about taking over from Klopp. It’s a challenge that he wants to take on.”
From Pearce’s update, it seems that Liverpool still have a bit of a gap to bridge before they arrive at a compensation figure which’d satisfy Feyenoord, who understandably want to hold out for the best possible amount before letting Slot leave.
Historically one of Netherlands’ most successful clubs, the Rotterdam outfit have won just four trophies in the past seven seasons including the current campaign, and two of those were Dutch Super Cups, the country’s equivalent of the Community Shield here (Transfermarkt).
The other two were the Eredivisie title and KNVB Cup that the 45-year-old has delivered over the past 12 months, and they were within 90 minutes of winning the inaugural Europa Conference League two years ago, which was also under his watch.
Slot has restored Feyenoord’s reputation as a genuine Dutch powerhouse after two decades of mediocrity, similar to what Klopp achieved with Liverpool in England and Europe.
While the job spec at Anfield would be rather different (i.e. preserving the club’s competitiveness at the top level rather than reviving a sleeping giant), it’s encouraging to hear that the prospective new manager is seemingly relishing that challenge.
If he’s the man that Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes truly want, we’d like to think that they’ll stump up a sufficiently inviting compensation package to sway the hierarchy at De Kuip.