‘The Club Knows’—Arne Slot Reacts As Liverpool Owners Decide Manager’s Future

Liverpool have experienced an alarming decline in the space of 12 months.

A growing number of Reds fans are fed up. | James Gill/Danehouse/Getty Images

Arne Slot said he feels “complete support” from all angles despite mounting scrutiny over his job as Liverpool manager, as a subpar season nears its conclusion.

The Reds are 2–0 down at the halfway stage of their Champions League quarterfinal against Paris Saint-Germain and face a battle to qualify for next season’s competition. Unless there is a miraculous turnaround against PSG, 2025–26 is also set to end trophyless.

It’s a sharp decline just 12 months after securing only the club’s second title of the Premier League era—and record-tying 20th overall. An unavoidable transition, delayed for a year from Jürgen Klopp’s departure, has taken its toll in a big way in recent months.

But even with some growing calls for Slot to be fired—and a belief that Champions League failure could be the final nail in his coffin—the Dutchman remains insistent the opposite is true.

“I’m repeating myself a lot but I feel a lot of support,” he said on Friday morning, as Liverpool prepare to face Fulham in the Premier League this weekend.

“Not only from the owners but from Richard [Hughes, sporting director] and Michael [Edwards, chief executive of soccer], a lot of support from them as well but, as weird as it might sound, I also feel the support from the fans,” he added.

“In Paris, when the players went out for the warm-up, and after the 4-0 loss [against Manchester City], the fans immediately started singing ‘we love Liverpool.’ It’s fair to say we were outplayed for 90 minutes [in Paris] and they were still singing and clapping for us.

“The club knows the period of time we’re in. In the meantime, I feel complete support.”

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Liverpool Owners Decide Slot Future

Slot has overseen a poor season by previous standards. | Harry Langer/DeFodi Images/Getty Images

Fenway Sports Group (FSG) make the ultimate calls at Liverpool and Slot doesn’t appear to be throwing out empty words about feeling supported. His statements marry with what The Telegraph had earlier reported, that FSG “believe” he will still be manager next season.

Slot, largely unknown outside his native Netherlands when he was chosen to be Klopp’s successor two years ago, has a contract at Anfield until the end of next season.

Liverpool brought in eight new first-team players last summer for a combined outlay climbing to a world record $603.5 million (£449 million). Another eight in the squad, or on its fringes, left. That amount of turnover was always going to be difficult to navigate, particularly with the majority of the new arrivals taking time to settle and a number suffering injuries of varying severities.

The expectation is that, a year down the line, they will be better in 2026–27.

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More Change Is Coming for Liverpool

The big issue for Slot in overseeing and nurturing that improvement from where the team is now, is that the project is very much still in progress and more major changes are unavoidable.

Mohamed Salah and Andrew Robertson, 18 years of combined service and more than 800 Liverpool appearances, will be leaving at the end of this season. There is no certainty about Ibrahima Konaté, still on course to be a free agent himself, and speculation about Alexis Mac Allister is growing.

Liverpool desperately need center back depth, probably even if Konaté ends up staying, will have to find a replacement for Salah, and arguably require strengthening all over the pitch.

In a World Cup summer, when most desirable players will be tied up with international duty and timeframes are squeezed because of the limited gap between the end of the tournament and the start of the new club season, recruiting well and efficiently is even harder than normal.

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