Arne Slot: “I Believe I’ll Be Liverpool Manager Next Season”

It’s not unusual for a head coach on the hot seat to say he isn’t worried about his job. And it’s not unusual for upper management and sporting directors to mumble supportive things about such a head coach. Yet despite Liverpool’s massively disappointing 2025-26 season, that the club look tired and without a tactical identity in May while about half of last season’s title winning side appear set to leave the club in the summer and the mood at Anfield creeps towards toxic, the supportive noises around head coach Arne Slot seem to be far more than simply noise.

Despite poor performances, poor results, and a side that whose pressing and passing efficiency, finishing, defending, and fitness have all regressed markedly over the past 18 months with no real shoots of hope for fans to latch on to in sight, it would be a shock if Slot departs at season’s end. “I don’t think I’m deciding it by myself but I have every reason to believe I’ll be Liverpool manager next season,” Slot said at his pre-match press conference ahead of Liverpool’s penultimate game of the 2025-26 season against Aston Villa on Friday night. Most recently, Slot and the team were booed by Anfield following a low-energy 1-1 home draw against Chelsea that came after London’s Blues had lost their past six league matches.

Some fans, particularly the ones who enjoy being able to cast themselves as morally superior to their fellow supporters, were quick to criticise the Anfield crowd. Yet this growing toxicity is clearly a direct result of the club having managed to convince everyone that Slot’s job is not in doubt despite the squad having been adrift for 18 months now. Comparisons have been made to Manchester United recently sticking with Erik ten Hag a season too long when things had clearly been trending badly for more than a year with no real, solid signs of the foundations for future success or any kind of a tactical identity in place, just as is the case for Slot at Liverpool now.

Liverpool fans, though, will likely remember back to the club doing the same with Brendan Rodgers in 2015. Michael Edwards, then the sporting director and now returned to the club, was key to the decision to persevere with Rodgers despite all evidence pointing towards a need for change. Sure enough, despite a significant summer’s backing—including sourcing Rodgers-favourite Christian Benteke from Aston Villa in a then quite costly £32.