Slot's message of empathy shows his class.
Liverpool manager's moving email to LMA awards audience.
Those who guide Liverpool’s footballing fortunes are expected to be more than managers. They lead more than a team. They provide leadership for the fanbase, even the whole community at times. Being Liverpool manager is more than a job. It’s about emotional intelligence as well as tactical.
The best have all these qualities, empathy and trophies too. Bill Shankly had them all. “He made the people happy,” reads the tribute on his statue outside the Kop. Bob Paisley was less demonstrative but no less engaged with the people. Kenny Dalglish won games and led a city in its darkest hour. Rafa Benitez and Jurgen Klopp are loved as people as well as managers. So were Joe Fagan and Gerard Houllier.
It’s a characteristic that defines the best managers at all clubs, but particularly Liverpool because of the expectations of the fans that their leader is more than a football manager. He’s a beacon in the community, a source of comfort and inspiration. It’s why Klopp was back in Liverpool last week, helping raise funds for the club’s Foundation.
It's why his successor, Arne Slot, even so early in his Liverpool career, already takes strides into the affections of the Liverpool support. An immediate impact on the team through tactics and personality immediately and inevitably endears him to Anfield. A trophy helps, too.
So did letting rip at Goodison Park, showing anger at a decision. That went down well. Slot reacted like a fan, emotionally, and the supporters loved that. They also respected his unflustered handling of all the debate over the futures of Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Slot represents Liverpool well.
Such has been the broader appreciation of Slot’s talents that he was named both Premier League Manager of the Year and League Managers Association Manager of the Year at the LMA annual dinner at the Grosvenor on Park Lane, London, last night. I’m writing this on a very late train back, with Slot’s humble words ringing in my ears.
He wasn’t present to accept the award on Park Lane and explained why in an email full of class read out by the LMA chief executive, Richard Bevan. It was these words, and the perfect pitch of his email, that confirm why the 46-year-old Dutchman is so well-suited to being Liverpool manager. The 900 guests fell silent to hear Slot’s special message.