Next Liverpool manager: Arne Slot head coach assumptions 'rubbish' - ex-PL owner

Arne Slot is heading to Anfield, taking up his role on June 1 and much has been made of the fact that Jurgen Klopp was Liverpool ‘manager’ whereas Slot comes in as ‘head coach’. 

It has been suggested that new Liverpool powerbrokers incoming sporting director Richard Hughes and FSG’s CEO of Football Michael Edwards were somehow looking to restrict the manager role, having seen Klopp’s influence spread throughout the Anfield corridors throughout his nine years in charge. 

As part of the search for a successor to Klopp, it was reported that potential candidates would be willing to work under this new structure, with responsibility for other matters - such as transfers and contracts - lying with people other than the head coach. 

Slot had worked in this type of setup previously in his roles at AZ and Feyenoord and so is familiar with it and the ‘head coach’ denomination ultimately didn’t prove an obstacle in negotiations. 

One former Premier League owner believes the distinction won’t count for much, with Slot content with getting on with coaching the team, and that the controversy caused this week has been largely driven by people with little to no knowledge of the situation. 

Simon Jordan, former Crystal Palace chairman, suggested that coming in as head coach may well have been Slot’s idea and that modern managers simply don’t have the capacity to get involved in off-field matters in the way their predecessors did. 

“It’s rubbish,” Jordan told talkSPORT. “How do you know that the guy didn't want to be determined as a coach? Certain guys want to be determined as coaches. 

“What people in the media have done is gone: ‘Ah ha!, this is a departure from the authority that Klopp had, that means he won't be involved in that’. How does anybody know that? How do you know the guy didn’t want to be coach?"

Jordan on Slot head coach 'assumptions'

“What the assumption is, is that Arne Slot is somehow being diminished from the role that Jurgen Klopp has. Now, you don't have Arne Slot’s version of how he wanted to come into Liverpool. 

“Maybe he wants to work with a transfer committee. Maybe he doesn't think he's an economist and understands the value of buying £100 million players and negotiating £20 million contracts. 

“Maybe he doesn't want any of that, so the narrative being peddled is, somehow, he's been diminished by it when in fact it’s the polar opposite. 

“When you're buying players in this marketplace, by the love of God, it's common sense to have people with more than one set of eyes. You’re trawling around the world. 

Managers don't have the time or the inclination.”