Next Liverpool manager: Arne Slot role revealed in move away from 'traditional' structure

Arne Slot is NOT going to become the next Liverpool manager, rather, he is set to be appointed 'head coach' as the Reds move towards a more continental footballing set up. 

That’s according to a report in The Times, which describes the appointment as “a shift away from the traditional British football club structure”. 

Jurgen Klopp is very much Liverpool’s manager and the latest reports suggest that the club’s hierarchy are not seeking another boss in the Klopp mould. 

Rather they are looking for a coach who will concentrate on coaching and preparing the first team and who will report into the sporting director. 

In the new structure, that sporting director will be Richard Hughes, the former midfielder who comes on board officially at the start of June. 

Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards will be in charge

Hughes has been recruited from Bournemouth where he was working as technical director, and the Scot had significant success in the transfer market on the south coast, signing among others the ex-Liverpool striker Dominic Solanke. 

It appears that Hughes will have control over the club’s transfer business and it won’t be left to Slot to identify and make the signings. 

Michael Edwards, the former Liverpool sporting director, who is now FSG’s CEO of Football, will be above Hughes in the pecking order. 

Edwards has returned to the club following Klopp’s announcement in January that he would be stepping down at the end of the season. He previously worked for Liverpool from 2011 to 2022, stepping up to become sporting director in 2016. 

Edwards was responsible for identifying some of the greatest signings in Liverpool’s recent history in Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah. 

Slot, 45, has been working in a similar manner at Feyenoord and it’s not the kind of role which will be unfamiliar to managers working elsewhere in Europe. 

It’s expected Slot’s announcement will be made official imminently with talks having taken place between Liverpool and Feyenoord delegates over the weekend. 

Klopp's nine-year Liverpool reign is sadly fizzling out with a 2-2 draw at West Ham on Saturday costing the Reds even more ground at the top of the table.