navbasi

Noted for next time... Hope you read it.. It's a brilliant insight in to how Slot works and what makes him tick...

I'd offer him a new 2 year deal, if he doesn't accept, then sell him rather than letting him walk for free next summer... I think the spat has been blown up because of who he is and because Jurgen is leaving, this shit must happen all the time.. Remember Sadio kicking off when he was subbed (think it was against Burnley) when Mo never passed to him for a tap in....

What I learnt from meeting Arne Slot – charismatic and innovative, but a big bet by Liverpool When, as expected, Arne Slot arrives at Liverpool’s training centre this summer, he will find at least one amenity perfectly to his taste. Slot is among the growing cast of top-level individuals in football hooked on padel, the high-paced racket sport that lands somewhere between tennis and squash. At Feyenoord’s training base in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, chief executive Dennis Te Kloese promised Slot the club would install a padel court — on the condition they won the league title. Slot made them Eredivisie champions last season, and the padel court soon followed. It means there is at least one shared trait between Slot and his Anfield predecessor Jurgen Klopp; the German has his own court at Liverpool’s training centre, competing against members of his backroom staff and calling padel “the best game I’ve ever played” (apart from football). After Liverpool and Feyenoord agreed terms for Slot to replace Klopp this summer, many Liverpool fans wondered quite what to make of it and how well-suited the 45-year-old Dutchman is to replacing the club’s most popular and successful manager of the Premier League era. As ever, hasty opinions form, often conditioned by framing. On the one hand, Slot is one of only two Feyenoord managers to win the title this century and he became the first coach to take the club beyond the group stage in a European competition since 2015, reaching the inaugural final of the Europa Conference League in 2022 and the Europa League quarter-finals last season in parallel to claiming the domestic championship. He won that title despite retaining only four players from his starting line-up in that Conference League final. Sales from that side raised €70million (£59.9m at the current exchange rate) in fees, and just over 40 per cent of that was reinvested as Feyenoord pursued financial sustainability after too many years of financial mismanagement. Of their 12 permanent signings, not one was aged 24 or over. This season, while again recording a positive net spend, Feyenoord are going to finish as runners-up, second to a freakish performance from PSV Eindhoven (who have won 27 and drawn three of their 31 league games so far), and will beat last season’s points tally of 82 if they win their last three matches. They won the Dutch equivalent of the FA Cup final just over a week ago. This version of the story, therefore, is largely of consistent development and excellence. Others, however, may take an alternative framing. They may question if Liverpool are taking an almighty gamble on a man who has only five seasons of experience as a head coach, all of which have been in the Netherlands, outside of European football’s elite, and one of which was in his homeland’s second division. Slot has coached only one campaign in the group stage of the Champions League, winning two of six games against Atletico Madrid, Lazio and Celtic, and losing the rest to fail to progress into the knockout phase. In almost three full seasons as Feyenoord manager, Slot has never lost consecutive league games, which is incredibly impressive, but means there is no evidence-base for how he may handle the longer periods of difficulty which are more likely in the fiercely-competitive Premier League, even with a club among its elite. At Feyenoord, no player recruited for Slot exceeded the €9million initial fee spent on Japanese striker Ayase Ueda from Belgian side Cercle Bruges last summer, and the highest player wage is believed to be around €40,000 a week. At Liverpool, he will inherit players such as Alisson and Virgil van Dijk, who were signed for eight-time multiples of Ueda, while Mohamed Salah earns £350,000 a week. It all serves to underline the comparative dimensions of Liverpool and the potential culture-shock of what’s expected to be his new job; where man-management as well as coaching will be crucial. Liverpool have over 37 times more followers on X, formerly Twitter, than Feyenoord’s 649,000; the media demands, global interest and revenues all dwarf those at his current club. The former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, writing in the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper after the Slot news broke, said: “For the last nine years, Liverpool have possessed one of the top two managers in the world. They are now gambling on the next big thing rather than appointing a proven, real deal.” The truth is nobody can predict with certainty how any manager may fare at a new club but what we can do is consider some of the factors that may have persuaded Liverpool. Last summer, The Athletic was provided with a window into Slot’s Feyenoord kingdom, receiving a full day of behind-the-scenes access. And on that day he was truly king of the castle, because Feyenoord had just clinched the title and it corresponded with the day he signed a new contract, having rejected the opportunity to join Tottenham Hotspur, who went on to appoint Ange Postecoglou. He has also remained faithful when two more Premier League clubs, Leeds United and Crystal Palace, came knocking earlier in the calendar year. Our trip to Rotterdam included more than seven hours of interviews with Slot, CEO Te Kloese and their head of sporting strategy Matt Wade, as well as extensive time with their scouting team and performance staff. It was a 360-degree examination of a club who had dramatically reformed their structure and performance, and offered rare insight into a man upon whom Liverpool’s incoming sporting director Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards, the club’s former sporting director back after two years away in a new role as owner Fenway Sports Group’s CEO of football, are now preparing to stake their reputations. As for initial impressions, Slot appeared charismatic. But maybe you would be pretty affable too when you have just signed a new contract — a deal which removed a €5million release clause from his previous deal, which would have otherwise come into play this summer. That left Feyenoord able to negotiate last week anywhere between €11million and €15m out of Liverpool, depending on which club’s briefings of their final agreement that you choose to believe. His grasp of English is easier on the ears and more lucid than his compatriot Erik ten Hag, who has sometimes struggled to convey the necessary charisma to both players and supporters in his near two seasons as Manchester Unitedmanager. And there were times, when Slot spoke, where the meaning behind his words could easily have come out of Klopp’s mouth. When explaining why he had chosen to remain at Feyenoord, he talked of the need to “cherish what you have” within an environment, taking pleasure from the way you work and those you work alongside. He said success ought not to be measured by prizes alone. This, however, was tinged with a sense of realism that will be required at Liverpool. At one point he quipped: “If a coach only talks about the process, then nine out of 10 times, the results are bad.” He talked of not wanting to be perceived as somebody who passes through, but as somebody who weaves a legacy into a club. He appeared genuinely touched when I told him how, during the previous evening, I had met a Feyenoord fan who credited Slot for not only winning more points than Ajax, Amsterdam’s 36-time Dutch champions, but allowing that supporter to believe for the first time that his team played prettier football than their arch-rivals, a club so closely connected with the ‘total football’ concept. When he discussed what he seeks from his players, Slot said he initially “emphasised players who are not maybe the best in the world, but who brought energy to the team and also to the stadium”. It is an ingredient which may be needed at Anfield, where the home team feed off the adrenaline shots being pumped out from the stands. He wanted to know how his players conveyed themselves in the media, because that, he said, contributes to the culture. Liverpool’s academy has proven fertile ground this season, as Klopp promoted talents including Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah, Bobby Clark and Jayden Danns. Expect that to continue under his successor. Slot awarded 12,334 minutes to academy talent in the season Feyenoord won the league. During our visit, he reflected, “Youth players in your first team give energy. And if people feel they can grow inside the club, that drives the culture. I don’t believe that much in experience; I believe more in game intelligence, and young players can have much more than an older player.” He said this mindset, where anybody can progress, should extend beyond the dressing room, citing how Frank Boer, a former marketing department intern at the club, had gone on to become their team-manager, overseeing player care. As with Klopp, he demonstrates empathy and care for younger generations. He looks with concern rather than bitterness towards the smartphone generation. “It’s much more difficult nowadays to play football,” Slot said. “Social media, being judged by everyone; more negative than it was in my day. And these guys now need to be so much fitter — really top athletes. So, yes, a big chance to earn a lot of money, but the pressure is higher than it was 20 years ago.” The data says that Slot’s training sessions, with drills often devised by his assistant Sipke Hulshoff, motivate his players. The playing and training availability of squad members hit 90 per cent in each of his first two full seasons at the club. Leigh Egger, one of the club’s performance leads, said: “The training sessions are constantly changing. They hit the sweet spot of overload, tactics and physical demand. It makes our job in performance easier, because the players really want to train all the time. You see it also with the substitutes, who may have every right to be disappointed at not playing, but our training availability is so high because the sessions are stimulating and really fun, from a footballing regard.” Hulshoff, who is also in the backroom staff of the Dutch national team, is Slot’s first assistant on a matchday, and often seen in the dugout. Slot wants his environment to be positive and favourable. He listens and collaborates, traits which cannot always be taken for granted at the highest level of sport. There is a system of fines for players, including for being late to a game or missing a team bus, but he is not a disciplinarian by nature. He does not see his role, or those of his staff, as akin to schoolteachers but rather to provide information, and give players every opportunity to make the healthiest choices. One of Slot’s colleagues said they never once heard him raise his voice at the training ground. Te Kloese, the CEO, said: “His player management is very unique — humane and thoughtful. He gives players a clear game plan, so players feel safe under him.” Players have often been heard speaking to one another after a game, saying how the action unfolded exactly how Slot had predicted, and how his instructions helped them overcome opponents. Yet Slot’s success does not exist in a vacuum. It required uniformity of vision. “Topsport”, as Feyenoord describe their culture, is applied across the club, which means consistency across the senior squad, the medical and performance teams and the academy. Under Liverpool’s sporting-director model, albeit with Edwards sitting at the top, the club want the person who’ll be their head coach, not manager, next season to co-exist within this framework, and at Feyenoord, Slot has demonstrated a willingness to do that. The most successful clubs these days have departments across the board who communicate and support one another, rather than operating as separate siloed operations. In the case of recruitment, therefore, we know Liverpool leaned heavily on their data and research analysts during Edwards’ reign as sporting director, with the data operation identifying the potential of then Roma forward Salah to excel in the Premier League, even after a difficult period at Chelsea earlier in his career. As Klopp grew more successful and powerful at Liverpool, his personal grip on recruitment became stronger, but while the club will welcome input from a head coach, they would like to simplify the role and allow that person to concentrate on the demanding bread and butter of developing players, preparing a team and selecting the line-up for the next match. None of which means recruitment teams and a head coach should be in conflict. Rather, if it works how it has at Feyenoord, the scouts and analysts spend time with the coach, study his setup and firmly understand his style of play. Then they have a prescription for the type of players needed for the coach to excel, and so go off and work to identify options. What Liverpool would wish to avoid is relying on the knowledge base of a coach, as rivals United appear to have done at times under Ten Hag, who has consistently looked to the Dutch market with which he is most familiar, as well as at players he has coached before, when it comes to signings. At Feyenoord, Slot is invited into recruitment meetings and asked his opinion. Often, he has agreed with the evidence presented to him. There were times he suggested players he coached elsewhere, or made some pretty obvious suggestions from rival clubs such as PSV. There were other times he would swiftly decline options presented by scouts, based on a limited amount of video footage. None of which are automatically negative things — Lisandro Martinez, for example, has proven to be a fine signing for United having played for Ten Hag at Ajax. Yet when Feyenoord made signings, even if the one who came in would not always be his first preference, Slot never held a grudge against the players concerned and devoted all his time and energy to maximising their talent. At Feyenoord, he has learnt to trust the scouting department, who strongly proposed the defender David Hancko after one scout had followed him from the academy of Slovakian club Zilina since his teenage years, with the player soon becoming integral for Slot. They then unearthed a $4million striker in Santiago Gimenez from Mexican side Cruz Azul and Slot’s confidence in the club’s deal-making, led by Te Kloese, was underlined when the CEO’s contacts in Mexico enabled him to beat clubs such as Porto and Benfica to Gimenez. Signed in July 2022, Gimenez became Slot’s top goalscorer and the 23-year-old will this summer be one of the most in-demand young forwards in Europe. Other players, such as Mats Wieffer and Igor Paixao, emerged from the second divisions in the Netherlands and Brazil — Wieffer is now a full Dutch international and Paixao scored Feyenoord’s winner in that recent cup final. Christos Akkas, a Feyenoord scout, said: “The coach was very specific about what he wants to play and we were able to capture from a data perspective, from a scouting perspective, but also from a mental, physical, technical, tactical perspective, exactly how he wants to play. And then the club set some rules. So we never sign an older or more expensive player than the one who is being replaced. Then we narrow down our search and, within that range, find the most suitable player.” As Slot’s style of play requires intense levels of fitness and high cognitive ability — Akkas said players have commented how much thought is required on the pitch — scouts would leave no stone unturned. In some cases, this meant following potential recruits to their homes, to see what time the lights went off in the evening. This was particularly important because Rotterdam is a city of nightlife attractions, so there was little use in them signing a party-animal when intellectual and physical endurance is required every day. As for the football, Slot does not disguise that he admires Pep Guardiola. There are traits that mirror much of what we have seen from Manchester City under the Spaniard, particularly the ferocious pressing to recover the ball and possession-based build-up. In one of his first team meetings at Feyenoord after joining in summer 2021, he told his players that the Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester City a few weeks earlier produced so few chances (a combined three shots on target) because of the defensive work applied by forwards on both teams. On the ball, he likes his right-backs to drift into midfield, so expect Trent Alexander-Arnold to continue in that role, because Slot’s teams tend to build up with three men in defence and two in midfield, even if the starting formation is more of a back four. Each season, he has slightly modified how his team build out from the back, so as not to become predictable. In central midfield, he likes players who make “depth runs” — fast, explosive moves from deep which can penetrate opposing defences. Midfielder Orkun Kokcu, now with Benfica, needed to physically adapt to increase his explosiveness over the first few yards during his time at Feyenoord, even getting a gym installed at home, where he would receive regular text messages from Slot asking for updates on his progress. Then there are the wingers, who he wants to isolate in one-on-one duels. This is why he brings his full-backs into central areas in the first place — to crowd the middle of the pitch, dragging opponents in to create one-on-one scenarios for those wide men. He said: “If you look at Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton, or Napoli (as they won the Serie A title last season, under Luciano Spalletti), or Man City or ourselves, we’ve got wingers who dominate these situations and that is what you need. That’s why I asked Dennis (Te Kloese, the CEO) at the beginning of the season for a lot of wingers, because you can’t expect every winger to perform in every single game and outplay their opponents. So that’s why they are the players substituted most often.” At Liverpool, where Edwards and Hughes have strong reputations for identifying talent and deal-making, Slot should be prepared to delegate on signings. It is not only within the field of recruitment where Slot has shown a preparedness to buy in. Feyenoord’s director of medical and performance Stijn Vandenbroucke has worked in his field for over two decades and he gushed as he described how the coach had complemented the club’s overall vision, all of which meant Feyenoord regularly excelled on “physical parameters, injury availability, winning games and physically outworking the opposition” — some pretty useful traits for a football club. Vandenbroucke detailed the club’s approach to combining biological, psychological and social needs of players, to aid the individual and the team’s overall development. Take, for instance, the case of striker Gimenez, where Slot was prepared to take a medium-term view after he arrived from Mexico. When Feyenoord look at possible signings, they not only have their scouts observe the player, but the club’s performance and medical departments, too. Sometimes, the football staff will flag limiting factors that should be improved by the performance team (strength or speed, for example) and on other occasions, as was the case with Gimenez, the observations can come from the performance end. For Gimenez, they analysed his running style and noted he needed more “control around his trunk and pelvis” to avoid injuries and physically compete at the highest level. The observations are based on screenings of a player’s movement patterns, in-game and on the training field. Vandenbroucke said: “We came to a conclusion that we needed a few months to get him (Gimenez) up and running. Arne agreed and he is the only manager I’ve ever worked with who would do that. It meant accepting we cannot play him from the start of the game because we needed the time to put more into him to get the output in the later stage of the season.” Gimenez therefore started only five games in his 2022-23 debut season before club football paused in the November for the World Cup held in Qatar during the northern hemisphere’s winter. The plan went so smoothly that, after the tournament, he started 20 of Feyenoord’s final 21 Eredivisie and Europa League matches, scoring in 12 of them and finishing as their 20-goal top scorer. Klopp has at times shown patience of his own, most notably taking time to bed Fabinho and Andy Robertson into his Liverpool team after they were signed. Slot was sufficiently secure in his own skin that he allowed the club to bring in a sports psychologist, Dan Abrahams, to help the players overcome the mental block that had prevented Feyenoord winning away to fierce rivals Ajax since 2005. Abrahams supported the team in this challenge, culminating in a 3-2 away victory in March 2023, and their superiority over Ajax was reaffirmed this season with a 4-0 win in Amsterdam last September and a 6-0 romp in Rotterdam this month. Feyenoord’s superiority in that away game was such that Ajax’s fans forced play to be halted by throwing flares onto the field. Slot believes in the science. His performance experts suggested that the players should seek to adapt their lives to revolve around upcoming kick-off times. For example, if Feyenoord are due to play a game starting at 9pm on a Friday, then the staff and Slot will make clear to the players via a text message that they should not be asleep at that hour on the previous evening and should be active, to avoid their circadian rhythm making them flat on matchday. The Feyenoord backroom team were tight-knit, both together and with the players, and it will be interesting to see how and if this can be replicated at a bigger club. He is seeking to bring one of his heads of performance, Ruben Peeters, with him to Liverpool, along with Hulshoff. He has tried and failed to convince Marino Pusic, formerly an assistant at Feyenoord, to be on his Anfield staff because he only joined Shakhtar Donetsk as their head coach last October and wishes to remain in that job. In Hulshoff and Peeters, Slot will have allies who would seek to replicate the high-performance environment I witnessed in motion at Feyenoord. Yet he is going to need more help. He will need patience from above when results inevitably do not always go to plan and the scorching spotlight of life in the Premier League life burns bright, he will need expertise from the club’s recruitment department and, most crucially, he will need to secure buy-in from players of a profile and reputation that is of another scale to what he has experienced so far in his brief managerial career. With Slot, the ideas and smarts appear to be there — a modern coach for a modern structure; it is now up to him to make the leap and up to Liverpool to produce an environment in which he can truly thrive. https://theathletic.com/5453208/2024/04/29/arne-slot-liverpool-feyenoord-head-coach/

Arne Slot will be Liverpool head coach, not manager Dutchman will focus on coaching and preparing first team at the club while reporting to sporting director in move away from Jürgen Klopp model. Like all the candidates Liverpool spoke to during their process of recruiting Jürgen Klopp’s successor, Slot is presently a head coach rather than a manager. The plan is for him to focus on coaching and preparing Liverpool’s first team while reporting to a sporting director, Richard Hughes, who will oversee recruitment and other aspects of the football department. Above them both will sit Michael Edwards, the former Liverpool sporting director who returned to the club last month as chief executive of football. Liverpool believe the new structure is more appropriate to the complexities and demands of the modern game and that it will give the man in charge of their first team — the head coach — more support to do his job, not less. Liverpool agreed a compensation deal worth up to £9.4million with Feyenoord for Slot on Friday and his appointment could be finalised in the next two or three days, with personal terms still to be agreed. In their process of identifying Slot as the right person to succeed Klopp, who is departing at the end of the season, Liverpool took a data-led approach. The Dutchman stood out thanks to his intense and attacking style of play, his ability to develop talent and add value to signings, and his teams’ propensity to outperform their expected levels. Another aspect that may have caught the eye of Edwards and his team is Feyenoord’s outstanding recent record of player availability. Slot’s connection with supporters and communication skills were also noted. A close observer of Dutch football told The Sunday Times: “Arne has the best English of any Dutch manager who has ever tried coming to England and an incredible way of using his words.” The move to the head coach model is significant in terms of Liverpool history. They have been a club with a tradition of dugout figures — the epitome being Bill Shankly — who shaped more than just their football teams while embodying the title of ‘manager’. However, Slot is seen as a collective-minded character who is relaxed about authority and status, and will be enthused by the idea of being the leader of a team of coaches. Many clubs in the Premier League now use the head coach model. Slot, who won the Eredivisie with Feyenoord in 2022-23, is expected to bring a number of staff with him from his present club. They will include his assistant Sipke Hulshoff, the head of performance Ruben Peeters and a key analyst, Etienne Reijnen, subject to work permits.

TNT Sport Interview ahead of the game https://t.co/DBtyv5Ibg0

Not defending him because he is an utter cunt but I don't get what AVB was trying to prove either.. Imagine Rodgers coming in and putting Suarez, Gerrard and Carra in economy and youth players in first class... and makes it even worse that it was a 13 hour flight.. Just doesn't make sense why you would want to flex your muscles like that as a new manager, if you really want a one team mentality, then have everyone sitting in economy....

Agree, but I thought it was more a piss take because Coventry had “scored” a 4th rather than us singing about them.

THIS.

can't see anything getting officially announced with us still needing to wrap up the title

Edwards will be given a prominent position within the club, which would see him lead football operations Chris Bascombe 12 March 2024 • 9:00am Michael Edwards, one of the key architects of the Liverpool renaissance led by Jurgen Klopp, is returning to the club in a senior role. After months of talks between Edwards and the club’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, the former sporting director has agreed to assume a critical position to help preserve and enhance the football legacy in the post-Klopp era. Edwards will not return as the new sporting director, a position he gave up in 2022 after ten years as one of the most influential figures in an acclaimed recruitment team. Instead, he will oversee football operations and his first priority will be to appoint a sporting director, with Richard Hughes expected to join him this summer having announced his imminent departure from Bournemouth. Edwards will be reunited with others’ who have been crucial in building a Liverpool squad which for the second time in three seasons is competing on all four fronts entering the final months of the season, chief scout Barry Hunter and Head of Recruitment Dave Fallows among them. Luring Edwards back to Liverpool is a coup for FSG, and ends a prolonged period of negotiation led by John W. Henry and Michael Gordon. Gordon, another vital component moving forward who remains in charge of club strategy, was determined to bring Edwards back and considered it of paramount importance given the huge void that will be left by Klopp. Liverpool know it is vital to get the managerial appointment right, but also feel stability behind the scenes has been fundamental to the club’s successes since 2015. There has been a danger of a ‘brain drain’ with Klopp taking his backroom coaching staff with him when he departs at the end of this season. Edwards’ comeback means those who have put the structures in place to ensure the coach had the tools to work his magic ‘front of house’ can appoint and help Klopp’s successor, whoever that might be. As Telegraph Sport reported last Wednesday, Edwards’ earlier resistance to a return significantly softened following the last of many fresh Liverpool approaches and he agreed to a face-to-face meeting in Boston with Henry and Gordon to hear how his new role will differ from the last. During his 20 months away from Liverpool, Edwards has been one of the most sought after sporting directors in world football and has turned down several chances to return to the Premier League, Chelsea among those who wanted him. Liverpool tried at least twice to bring him back. Mastermind behind club’s most successful transfer deals His reputation follows a prolonged spell of successful transfer activity, both buying and selling. On Edwards’ watch, Liverpool famously signed Philippe Coutinho from Inter Milan for £8.5 million before selling him to Barcelona five years later for £142 million. The proceeds of the sale directly contributed to Liverpool signing Alisson Becker and Fabinho, on top of the £75 million record-breaking deal for Virgil Van Dijk. Liverpool won the Champions League, Premier League and World Club Cup over the following 18 months. There were countless other deals which confirmed Edwards intuitive understanding of how to maximise value in the transfer market, Liverpool winning admiration for how they have stuck to their principles, often walking away from deals when the price is not right, as well as maximising their profits from the squad players they have allowed to leave. Naturally, Edwards most important task alongside Gordon is to decide on the next manager, with Xabi Alonso remaining the favourite but several other candidates under serious consideration. Liverpool were eager to finalise the key executive appointments before pressing ahead with formal approaches to those most suited to continuing Klopp’s outstanding work.

Allegedly these are the leaked texts… https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folders/1OlV2wb51s1WhjLFq0Lsp4inRU60qvdhY

The Allez Allez in extra time was something else… It just got louder and louder and louder… It will live with me for the rest of my days how we pushed the lads over the line today…. No other club, no other fanbase could have done that… It was our YNWA Istanbul half time moment….

Wataru Endo, Liverpool’s £16m bargain who has left Caicedo in the shade By James Pearce Wataru Endo’s eyes light up as he contemplates what lies ahead in the Carabao Cup final. “I’m so excited to play at Wembley,” he says. “I heard that 90,000 people will be there to watch. It will be my first time at such a special stadium. It would mean a lot to me to win my first title with this club.” Liverpool’s late bloomer has exceeded all expectations since completing a surprise £16million ($20.2m) move to Anfield from Stuttgart last summer. On Sunday, the Japan international will come face to face with the man who played a pivotal role in ensuring that, at the age of 30, he belatedly realised his Premier League dream. If Moises Caicedo had been swayed by Liverpool’s advances after they had a club-record offer of £111m accepted by Brighton in August, chances are Endo would still be in the Bundesliga. But Caicedo opted for Chelsea and, after Southampton’s Romeo Lavia did likewise in a £53m deal, Jurgen Klopp responded by turning to a holding midfielder he had admired for years. The reaction among the wider fanbase to the identity of Fabinho’s replacement was initially underwhelming. With Liverpool’s options dwindling fast, some viewed Endo as a panic buy. But, internally, senior Anfield figures never saw it that way. The data highlighted Endo as one of the Bundesliga’s best-performing midfielders in key metrics such as duel success, winning possession, tackles and attacking sequence involvements. The character references obtained by interim sporting director Jorg Schmadtke were glowing. As well as his leadership and work ethic, Endo’s durability was viewed as a major plus given he had sat out just three league matches over the previous three seasons combined. Liverpool pointed to the four-year contract they had given Endo as proof he wasn’t viewed as a short-term fix. Despite the ongoing speculation, there was never any chance of them recruiting another specialist No 6. Six months on, how the tone has shifted. Chelsea’s celebrations over that expensive double triumph in the transfer market have long since fallen silent. They sit 25 points adrift of Klopp’s table-topping side. For a seventh of the price of Caicedo, who has struggled to live up to his price tag, Endo has given Liverpool so much more bang for their buck. As for Lavia, he’s made just one substitute appearance for Chelsea in a campaign blighted by injury and remains sidelined. “My god, were we lucky, eh?” said Klopp when speaking at the Anfield Road Stand test event in December. “We obviously realised that other central defensive midfielders don’t want to join Liverpool and then we found Endo.” Some perceived it as a dig at Caicedo and Lavia, but Klopp was focusing on the good fortune of having such an effective backup plan after missing out on two targets. Understandably, Endo needed some time to settle. There were four days between the call he received from his agent about Liverpool’s interest and his debut against Bournemouth. He didn’t have the luxury of a pre-season under Klopp. The pace and physicality of the game required an adaptation period, as did the manager’s desire for his No 6 to operate higher up the field than Endo had been used to. He only started one league match before mid-November, with Alexis Mac Allister preferred in the holding role. Shy and unassuming, Endo slowly came out of his shell around the training complex and grew in stature. Klopp and his staff have regularly reinforced to him that he belongs at this level. Endo, who has four children, was snubbed by J1 League clubs as a youngster before playing in Japan’s second tier, then launching his career in Europe in the modest surroundings of Sint-Truiden in Belgium, and then going from benchwarmer to adored skipper at Stuttgart. He is no stranger to digging deep to prove people wrong. He has clocked up 27 appearances (20 starts) for Liverpool in all competitions this season and that figure would be higher but for the seven matches he missed during his involvement at the Asian Cup in Qatar last month. His return to Klopp’s side has enabled Mac Allister to operate further forward, with Endo excelling as the defensive shield. “It’s hard to play for Liverpool. There’s always a lot of pressure,” he says. “Playing in the Premier League is tough but this is something I wanted for a long time. I try to make sure I enjoy it and do my best every time. “I’ve developed and improved over the season and that has helped to give me more confidence.” His combative performances in this month’s wins over Brentford and Luton Town bode well for Wembley. Against Luton, he completed 50 of his 53 passes (94 per cent) and created three chances. He won possession on six occasions, with Virgil van Dijk (seven) the only Liverpool player to better that figure. “We’ve lost a lot of players to injuries but the win against Luton showed that we still have good players available,” Endo adds. “We’re very much together as a team. “The fans have been amazing to me since I arrived. The atmosphere was crazy in the second half against Luton.” Endo was away on international duty when the news broke about Klopp’s decision to step down at the end of the season. He believes the manager’s impending farewell will continue to galvanise the dressing room. “I was sad when I heard about it,” he says. “I really enjoy playing for him and playing football the way he plays. Others have been here a lot longer so maybe have more emotion but he has helped me so much. “It’s disappointing but I want us to achieve titles for him before he goes. Winning at Wembley would give us extra energy.” Having signed for Liverpool after the draw at Stamford Bridge on the opening weekend of the season and been in Qatar when Mauricio Pochettino’s side were hammered 4-1 at Anfield last month, Sunday will be the first time Endo has faced Chelsea. He will be surrounded by an array of more expensive purchases at Wembley but he is proof that you do not have to pay sky-high prices to find the perfect solution to a problem.

Real Madrid ask to move final La Liga fixture for Taylor Swift tour Real Madrid have filed a request to La Liga to move their final game of the season to enable more time to set up for Taylor Swift’s concert at the Bernabeu the following week. Madrid are set to play Real Betis on Sunday May 24 before Swift’s Madrid leg of The Eras Tour takes place on Thursday May 30. The club have asked for the fixture to be moved to an earlier date, with Saturday May 23 in mind, to allow more time to prepare the stadium for the 34-year-old singer’s concert. Madrid are also attempting to find an additional date to host a second Swift concert in light of the interest they have received. There are complications over whether the request will be granted given both teams could still have something to play for heading into the final round of La Liga fixtures. The title race could go down to the final game of the season, with Madrid six points ahead of second place Girona, while Betis could remain in contention for a European place. Betis sit seventh in La Liga, one point behind Real Sociedad in the league’s final European spot. Madrid would need to play their final league fixture at the same time as Girona and Betis would need to play at the same time as the other teams in contention to qualify for Europe in the interest of sporting fairness. Swift is set to visit a number of football stadiums as part of the 2024 tour, including Liverpool’s Anfield, Wembley Stadium in London and Lyon’s Groupama Stadium. Concerns had been raised over her Lyon dates, with the risk of them clashing with the Ligue 1 relegation play-off. Lyon sit three points above the Ligue 1 relegation play-off place.

It’s just a joke, not a single fuck is given. They do exactly what they want and if anyone challenges them, their army of lawyers tie whoever questions them in knots…

Jonathan Northcroft - The Times Jürgen Klopp’s human side forced him to walk away from Liverpool Football on Merseyside and throughout the nation will lose so much more than a manager when the German leaves the Anfield dugout this season Liverpool and English football are going to lose more than a football manager. That was obvious when another friend visited Liverpool city centre in the hour after Klopp announced he was leaving the club after this season, describing it as “the world’s biggest funeral — just men staring into their phones”. It was obvious from the reaction of Klopp’s biggest rival, Pep Guardiola, who said with sad warmth, “I have this feeling that he’s leaving part of us at Man City too.” At Anfield, at Sunday’s FA Cup tie with Norwich City, the noise, tears and banners will make it glaring. It was telling, in the video he recorded for supporters, that Klopp, 56, spoke of finding ways to explain his decision to his wife, Ulla. She loves Merseyside and their life in the coastal village of Formby and persuaded him to stay when he was close to quitting midway through last season. Fatigued and mindful of his health, Klopp found 2022-23 a “dog year”, as he put it in his press conference on Friday. He needed to rebuild his team, especially its midfield, and was fed up with the relentless schedule and noise. Among experiences that disillusioned him was one where, during Liverpool’s defeat at Old Trafford in August, a Liverpool fan stood behind Ulla yelling negatives about him throughout the game. He was snapping at benign journalists in press conferences and overseeing performances that baffled him, like a 3-0 defeat against Wolves for which, he said afterwards, “I have no words.” But, with Ulla leading those who encouraged him to continue, Klopp regathered his fight and threw himself into the job with fresh energy, pushing Liverpool up the table and with help from an interim sporting director recruited to assist him — an old associate, Jörg Schmadtke — overhauled his squad, buying an entirely new midfield. This season evokes even more parallels with Sir Alex Ferguson: a managerial tour de force where sharp recruitment, leadership and brilliant decision-making (witness the boldness and extraordinary impact of Klopp’s substitutions) has put a non-vintage Liverpool top of the league just as Fergie did with a non-vintage Manchester United in his final campaign. But the underlying tiredness didn’t go away. It was also telling that the moment which made Klopp realise it was time for a break came when he sat down with staff to plan the next pre-season. He had the sudden thought, ‘What if I’m not here?’ and found it not daunting but enticing. It’s “just the stuff you have to do next to it [the football],” Klopp said, explaining what drained him. An experienced fellow manager understands. “It’s the decision-making that tires you out. ‘What time are we eating dinner?’ ‘When’s the team meeting?’ ‘Where are we staying?’ ” he says. On top of this there are media demands that have “gone to a totally different level in the past five years”. Before games there are press conferences and interviews with rights holders which, in an age saturated with content, are getting ever more left-field and demanding. Nobody wants a quick sit-down discussing team news any more — broadcasters want to take you on a walk round the training ground, throw a quiz at you, ask quirky lifestyle stuff, in the attempt to “get something different”. Quickly, that becomes grating and time-consuming. After games a manager — especially of a club with Liverpool’s profile — will routinely have ten and more media assignments, hopping from podium to pitch-side podium for post-match broadcast interviews with domestic and foreign rights holders before doing radio, club channels and their post-match press conference. Then there is the increasing complexity of coaching, analysis, recruitment and dealing with players. And logistics. In the Europa League, Liverpool are having one of those dreaded Thursday-Sunday-Thursday-Sunday seasons while maintaining runs in both domestic cups. The past week typified the toll on personal schedules. Liverpool had a late Sunday afternoon kick off in Bournemouth and couldn’t fly home from there (for the second time this season) because of storms. Players were couriered home in luxury vans but for everyone else, including coaching staff, there was a five-hour bus journey back to John Lennon Airport, where their cars were parked, and then for Klopp another 90 minutes’ drive home. He got in close to 1am, had training the next day, then the next was on the road again — to London where, on Wednesday, Liverpool played Fulham. At a League Managers Association conference before Christmas the keynote speakers included a brain expert who talked about sleep, a psychologist, a heart specialist and a business guru whose presentation was about reinventing yourself in middle age. This is a profession under increasing strain, increasingly conscious of workers’ need to look after themselves. The reaction from those who know Klopp well is unanimously “good for him”. “He’s superman but people love him because he’s everyman, yet that means he has everyman issues,” one said. In the summer he became a granddad for the first time and is besotted with the child, a boy, yet has only seen him in snatched moments because (born to his stepson, Dennis) he lives in Germany. At Klopp’s press conference it was poignant when he said, “I don’t want to wait until I’m too old to have a normal life” but also “I don’t know how normal life is. I have to figure it out.” This is a guy who became a father at 20, when he was playing amateur football, attending university and doing 6am shifts in a warehouse to pay for his studies. “I had to become a very serious person at a young age. All my friends would be calling me to go to the pub at night and every bone in my body wanted to say, ‘Yes! Yes! I want to go!’ But, of course, I couldn’t go,” he recalled. From there he went into professional playing and, for the last 24 years, the consuming world of coaching. He told Mike Gordon, president of Fenway Sports Group and the ownership’s man running Liverpool, of his intentions in November. Their bond is incredibly close and after establishing there was no chance of Klopp reconsidering, Gordon understood. However the players didn’t know until Klopp called a meeting before practice on Friday and told them in a dressing room at the training ground. Staff received an email and then the video for supporters was released. Recorded in one take on Thursday, it was unscripted with Klopp wearing the gear of a normal middle-aged bloke — jumper, jeans and trainers. A nod to the civilian life he can’t wait to try on for size. Liverpool have lost just one league game this season and even then it involved a VAR farce that went against them. The unknown is how this news will affect players but, when Liverpool try to fill what Jamie Carragher suggests will be a post-Klopp “vacuum”, finding someone who can captivate footballers in quite the same way might be impossible. Ralf Rangnick described Klopp to me as a “menschenfänger” — a German word to describe charisma that literally means “people-catcher” — and nine seasons of listening to players speak about the Liverpool manager has brought home how special he is in this regard. Ibrahima Konaté told me about facing a choice between Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Real Madrid and having his mind made up by a video call with Klopp. “I watched nothing else but his eyes. And I saw sincerity,” Konaté said. Guardiola admitted on Friday that Klopp “would be leaving part of us at Man City” when he departed Then there was Jan Kirchhoff, recalling for me how it was playing for Klopp at Mainz. “When he comes into a room it feels like the room is full of him,” Kirchhoff said. “He has — as we call it in German — he is able to deduct his thoughts. That means really complex things, he is able to break [them] down into simple sentences. Into player language. So it’s easy to give him what he wants.” Yet Liverpool are losing someone who can do the ruthless side of leadership too. A fringe player who Klopp wanted to put in their place was told, “Listen, if my mum and dad hadn’t got together and had me you would never be a Premier League footballer”. Ask Mamadou Sakho, the former fan favourite who on a 2016 tour of the US delayed the squad’s outgoing flight by arriving at the airport late, was then late for a team meal, then didn’t show for a recovery session which impacted the schedule of physios. Klopp sent him home. Until a move to Crystal Palace, Sakho spent the next five months playing for Liverpool’s under-23s. Ilkay Gundogan tells a story of a ferocious dressing-down at Dortmund (Gundogan’s crime was breaking club rules by reporting for training with a muscle problem without giving the physios notice). Gundogan kept protesting that he was still OK to train until Klopp yelled at him: “Do whatever the f*** you want to do!” But later, Klopp sidled up on the practice pitch and put a big arm round his midfielder. “My friend, do you know why I was so angry? I just care about you. And I don’t want you to get injured,” Klopp said, giving him a hug. Liverpool are losing the captain of their culture, someone who stood up for the collective ethic in Doha when they won the Club World Cup in 2019. At the presentation, upon hearing fringe players might not receive medals, Klopp threatened, “OK, I will go there and when the Sheikh or whoever wants to give me a medal I won’t take it. Tell them I will kill the whole ceremony.” Extra medals were duly found. At the old training ground, Melwood, there was a portrait of Klopp made up of the names of every single employee who worked there and this is a manager who has the perhaps old-school view that his job is to carry everyone at the football club, whether in the football department or not. He set a tone at the end of his first season after Liverpool lost the 2016 Europa League final to Sevilla in Basel. With a whole room of employees moping at the post-match party Klopp strode across the dancefloor, grabbed the mic and said: “Two hours ago, you all felt shit. But now hopefully you all feel better. This is just the start for us. We will play in many more finals.” Then he broke into a rendition of, “We are Liverpool, tra la la la la.” What now? Billy Hogan, Liverpool’s CEO, promised that in the hunt for a successor the club will go through “the same process that brought us Jürgen”, which involved compiling a 60-page dossier on the German, drawn from info from journalists, players, colleagues and Liverpool’s then director of research, Ian Graham, who provided detailed statistical analysis showing that in all but two of 14 previous seasons as a boss Klopp had significantly overperformed given his budget. Michael Edwards, the former sporting director, even sat, anonymously, in a hotel where Klopp was staying, listening to him talking on the phone, to get a sense of his dealings with people. Though Edwards and Graham are gone, Gordon remains and crunching the numbers will be Will Spearman, Graham’s successor, well-apprenticed in the “Liverpool way” of using data. There is confidence at the club that the systems and knowledge in place will lead them to the right successor. Xabi Alonso is the early favourite and Roberto De Zerbi is in the frame but nobody should jump the gun. A year ago many were predicting Jude Bellingham was Anfield-bound but in pulling out of the race for him in order to spread their budget on four midfielders, not one, Liverpool showed themselves willing to risk criticism and go against fan and media opinion to make appropriate recruitment decisions. With that remarkable knack for finding the right phrase, at the right moment, and being at the same time both lighthearted and affecting, the grizzled, mellower (say managerial adversaries) Klopp mused at his press conference, “We are not young rabbits any more, we don’t jump as high as we once did”, and it spoke of a man who has seen a world only filled with football, but whose life has had room for too little else for too long. A few years ago, he mused about why we are all on this earth. He suggested life was “about leaving better places behind. About not taking yourself too seriously. About giving your all. About loving and being loved”. He has not gone yet but even if he left tomorrow how very thoroughly, at Liverpool, he has lived out that mission.

$1.6bn for 25% - $1.3bn to the Glazers and $300m to fix the leaky roof!! The club gets $200m on completion and then remaining $100m by the end of 2024.

I'm not sure how the members card works, but it's clear something needs to be done about tickets and how they are distributed... Like you say.. start with the phones registered.

Maybe the club should start with all these reseller sites like https://www.livefootballtickets.com/english-premiership/liverpool-tickets.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiA4Y-sBhC6ARIsAGXF1g5kc9j6rCxWvSci0DzWHMyUOAbL_U4_8kqUdRis6oH-XDueLsVvN88aAnoAEALw_wcB Where are they getting their tickets from? It can only be from STH/Members - buy up the tickets and then cancel the ST/Members card for whoever is responsible for selling them.. They wouldn't even need to buy all of them.. buy 100 and then when they cancel them, make a point of calling it out on the official site... I would suspect the remaining tickets would soon be taken off sale.. I don't think the club are that bothered though.. I was lucky enough to get a ST in the Kop (in 2011) after being on the waiting list since 1997, I would never risk losing my seat by selling it on a reseller site, if I can't make a game, it's sold back to the club for a credit towards next season's ST, obviously there are plenty out there who are happy to make 3/4 times face value.

I agree that he'll get 2nd IF he decides to stay and end his career here.. I can't see him getting past Rushie though. Add the 16 you've said this season, he would then need to score a minimum of 20 goals per season for the next 6 1/2 seasons.. at which time he would be 38 years old!

Just brilliantly brilliant... I always save the weekend pods for my long run on a Monday and when Dave started telling that story, I literally had to stop because that was some seriously funny shit!! I was so gutted that I missed out on this in real time when the tweets were being sent!!! Bravo Squire!

I've just had a few shirts delivered from here >> https://www.soccer04.com Highest quality, you would never know the difference.. It takes about 4-6 weeks for delivery though so don't panic if they don't turn up, they will!!! Mates have also go a load of stuff from here and all said the same thing, great quality products!

Luis Suarez’s year in Brazil with Gremio: ‘Like watching an alien play with humans’ Not even the rain — biblical, unrelenting — could hide the tears. The game was done, but Luis Suarez was not. For the best part of 15 minutes, he circled the pitch, clapping and sobbing, his team-mates reverential in the background. After a while, his wife and children ran on to smother him in hugs. In the stands, 50,000 more loved ones screamed his name. A video played up on the big screen. It was a compilation of the moments that led to and explained this one: the passes, celebrations and goals that have made Suarez a Gremio icon, just 11 months after he arrived at the club. Now, after one final match — and one last winning goal for the road — at the Arena Gremio, he was saying goodbye. “I will carry this moment with me,” said Suarez, the emotion writ large on his face. “This is more than I ever expected.” That sentiment will be shared by everyone connected to the club. Gremio were only promoted back to the Brazilian top flight a year ago but they are on the verge of qualifying for the 2024 Copa Libertadores, thanks largely to Suarez. He has contributed 27 goals and 17 assists this year (all competitions), but even those numbers do not quite capture the impact he has had since arriving in Porto Alegre. “In certain games, it seemed like he was from a different planet,” says Leonardo Oliveira, who covers Gremio for local newspaper Zero Hora. “It was like watching an alien play with humans.” The signing was both a statement of intent and an olive branch to the fans. Gremio — one of Brazil’s most historic clubs — had endured two grim years and wanted to restore a little lustre. Suarez’s big-ticket appeal was immediately underlined when 30,000 fans turned up to welcome him to the stadium. Not everyone was convinced at that stage. Suarez was just about to turn 36 and had been playing back in Uruguay; it felt to some like Gremio had prioritised brand awareness over on-pitch considerations. “It’s great from a marketing point of view but questionable in sporting terms,” wrote Paulo Vinicius Coelho, a well-known columnist. Those fears proved to be unfounded. Suarez scored a hat-trick on debut and was a cut above as Gremio cruised to the Rio Grande do Sul state championship. It was the same story when the Campeonato Brasileiro began: Suarez produced memorable finishes against Red Bull Bragantino and Cruzeiro, then netted a glorious individual goal in the derby win against Internacional. Suarez has contributed 27 goals and 17 assists for Gremio this year (Liamara Polli/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images) Best of all was his 19-minute hat-trick against Botafogo in November, which dragged Gremio from the jaws of defeat to a stunning 4-3 victory. “A timeless display that deserves to go down in the history of the league,” wrote GloboEsporte’s Douglas Ceconello. “Gremio fans will tell their grandkids that they saw Suarez play in the tricolour shirt.” Suarez’s coach was similarly effusive. “He’s different,” said Renato Portaluppi. “Watching him play is a beautiful thing.” It is hard to argue with that assessment. Suarez may be a little slower and a little less explosive than the forward who scored so many goals for Liverpool and Barcelona, but there is still a lot to admire about his play. His mind is as razor-sharp as it ever was, as is his finishing. He is still politician-slippery and retains the Scrappy-Doo spirit that always made him such a b*****d to play against. Importantly, he also cared. A lot of veteran players forget to pack their work ethic when they move back to South America, but not Suarez. “Even with his superior technical ability, he never stopped running for the team,” says Oliveira. “He gave his last drop of sweat to the cause.” If Suarez plays in Gremio’s final Serie A game, against Fluminense in midweek, it will be his 54th club appearance of 2023. He has never played more in a single season. This is all the more remarkable when you consider that he has spent much of the year managing a chronic knee problem — one that often prevents him from training. In June, there were even whispers that the injury, which dates back to 2020, might force him to call time on his career. He asked to be substituted in a match against Coritiba after being overcome by joint pain. “It’s very serious,” said Gremio president Alberto Guerra. “He’s getting towards his limit.” The club denied that Suarez had asked to retire. That rumour was then overtaken by a more pernicious one: that Suarez was looking to engineer an early departure so that he was free to join Inter Miami. After weeks of telling silence from club and player, an agreement was reached: Suarez would stay put until December but Gremio would waive the second year of his contract. “Next year, I will not be able to produce what Gremio expect of me due to the intensity of Brazilian football and the number of games,” said Suarez. “It’s a decision I reached with the club. They understood and I’m thankful for that.” Whatever the intricacies of the situation, it is a testament to Suarez’s efforts on the field that supporters did not turn on him. On the contrary, they have spent a good chunk of every game since then trying to convince him to stay, albeit more in hope than expectation. Team-mates, too, have rallied behind him. It is not hard to understand the goodwill. Suarez has scored or assisted more than 40 per cent of the side’s goals this year. Off the pitch, Gremio have reported a huge surge in revenue from merchandising and ticket receipts. Club membership numbers have rocketed from around 60,000 at the start of 2023 to more than 100,000. Gremio fans thank Suarez for his performances in 2023 (Richard Ducker/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images) “I didn’t imagine the extent to which he would mobilise the fanbase,” says Oliveira, who cites Suarez’s willingness to engage with the local community as a key part of his appeal. “Some players lock themselves up inside gated communities, but Suarez picked his kids up from school, ate out with his family in the city centre and went to the supermarket in flip-flops. He was a star player who didn’t live in a bubble.” Last week, Suarez was presented with a medal of honour by the local legislative assembly in recognition of his contribution to the city. On Sunday night, standing in front of his adoring public for the final time, he returned the compliment. “I felt at home here,” he said. “Wherever I go, I will always be a Gremio fan.” He will soon, in all likelihood, be an Inter Miami player. Fresh adventures await, as does a reunion with Lionel Messi, his former Barcelona team-mate. For those he is leaving behind, memories of his whirlwind year in Porto Alegre will have to suffice. “I have been following Gremio for over 40 years and they have had some great players in that time,” says Oliveira. “Suarez has not been at the club long, but I would put him near the very top of the list, alongside Renato (Portaluppi) and Ronaldinho. “The fans will always remember the time when one of the greatest players in the world landed here.”

They've got one on Oxford Street as well.. Saw it the other week and thought it was well weird but the NYC one tops that!

They’re still laundering by the looks of it!! Might as well get fucking Persil as their shirt sponsor.