‘I’m not worried’: Arne Slot bids farewell to Feyenoord fans as Liverpool beckon
Arne Slot salutes the crowd after Feyenoord’s 5-0 win against PEC Zwolle at De Kuip. Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/Shutterstock
Arne Slot has all but confirmed he will leave Feyenoord to join Liverpool at the end of the season after saying his goodbyes to the Dutch club’s fans at the end of Sunday night’s 5-0 thrashing of PEC Zwolle, saying: “I’m not worried at all about whether it will go ahead – the question is when it will be communicated.”
Though Feyenoord have one home game still to play, against Excelsior in two weeks, much of the main home end will be empty for that match as punishment for their use of fireworks during the KNVB Cup semi-final against Groningen. At the end of the game against Zwolle fans in those sections stayed behind as Slot approached and waved in what appeared to be a farewell, while his name and photograph appeared on the scoreboards behind the goal.
“I think I agree on that, that it looked like that,” he said. “Because of all the rumours in the media I think they are expecting me to leave. Yeah, that is something we could say.”
Slot watched the start of Liverpool’s 4-2 win over Tottenham before turning his attention to the Zwolle match, and said he is likely to watch the rest of it in due course. “If the official confirmation is there and I’m 100% sure that I will go there, I don’t think I’ll only watch that game, I will watch a lot of games from them,” he said.
Slot also said that he intended to take Jürgen Klopp up on his offer of advice, the German having indicated earlier this week that if his replacement “wants to know something he can call me, we can speak about absolutely everything”.
Slot said: “I think it’s normal that if you go to a new club, and if that would be Liverpool, it is normal that you contact the former coach. I did this when I went to Feyenoord as well. It’s more than normal that, all the knowledge a person has that worked a few years at that club – and in his situation even nine years – that you contact him. Apart from that I know his assistant quite well, Pepijn Lijnders. But if there’s an official confirmation, when the season is done, it would be strange if I didn’t call him then.”