Upper management backing of head coaches under pressure isn’t unusual. In fact, it’s often seen as the kiss of death to have a sporting director come out to say he backs a manager going through a difficult spell—given the very fact such a statement has to be made speaks to how bad things are.
Liverpool, though, have gone out of their way to back under fire Arne Slot to a degree rarely seen. They’ve held round tables with the manager, they continue to insist via briefed journalists that their support
is genuine, and there has been nary a whisper of them looking at potential replacements.
Now, the consensus top target should they wish to replace Slot is being courted by Chelsea. That man, in case you’ve been living under a rock, is former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso, who managed an invincible season with Bayer Leverkusen before taking on Real Madrid’s poisoned chalice.
“It didn’t quite work out in Madrid but I think Madrid made a mistake getting rid of him and it would be a coup for Chelsea,” Jamie Carragher, Alonso’s former Liverpool teammate, said on Sky. “I think he’d love to manage Liverpool one day, but Chelsea are one of the biggest clubs out there.
“Now, I think once you’ve managed one of Liverpool’s rivals it makes it more difficult. So maybe a little down the road, but it does make it more difficult. But he has to do what’s best for him right now, and I think there will be Liverpool supporters looking at that thinking he’s the one we want.
“Because you can’t deny it as a Liverpool supporter at this point. I don’t even think that it’s 50:50 on keeping Arne Slot. People outside, maybe they can’t get their heads around—Liverpool won the league and now he’s got them Champions League—but the drop off has just been so, so stark.
“There’s been no improvement from day one until the end of the season in results or in performances to make you think that it’s going to get any better. So my worry with Liverpool and Arne Slot now is are we gonna get into October or November and think, well, we’ve gotta change the manager.”
Carragher went on to compare it to Manchester United persisting with Erik ten Hag after a solid first season followed by a terrible second, but most Liverpool fans will instead likely look back to Liverpool’s decision to keep Brendan Rodgers a decade ago despite how clearly he’d lost fan support.
Sure enough, when results weren’t perfect to start the next season the mood quickly turned toxic—which it has already started to at Anfield this season as supporters feel put in a corner by just how far out of their way the club has gone to convince the world Slot remains their preferred manager.
If the situation persists, if Chelsea’s approach for Alonso firms up or perhaps even is finalized, it could turn the final game of the season at Anfield—a game meant to be a goodbye into legends Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson and possible Alisson Becker as well—into something ugly.
If it does, some—especially perhaps that portion of Liverpool fans who have built a fan identity around believing they are morally superior to their fellow supporters—will blame the fans. They will be wrong. It will be the fault of the club and of sporting directors Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes.
“That’s going to be the problem for Liverpool supporters,” Carragher added. “Especially when it now seems like Slot’s going to be given another opportunity, and especially when the fans see Xabi Alonso there and think, well, of course he’d want to come to us because of his history with the club.”
