A little over a month ago, all of the noise coming out of Liverpool was that Arne Slot would be the Head Coach of the team heading into the 2026/27 campaign.
In fact, on May 21, James Pearce of the Athletic posted on X to say the following: “Liverpool’s position on Arne Slot remains unchanged - despite a day of social media rumours.”
On the Athletic’s podcast in May, David Ornstein was fairly adamant Slot would remain with the Reds too, saying: “All of our information is that FSG, the ownership, the sporting hierarchy at Liverpool - they intend to stick with Arne Slot. From the conversations I've had - even if there's no Champions League football - that's the intention.”
And yet on May 30, Liverpool parted ways with Slot.
This wasn’t just a shock to fans but to the Dutchman himself. Per Paul Joyce of the Times, Slot’s representatives had been told a day prior that “there was no change in the support from Liverpool.”
He was informed at 11am on Saturday that the club would be moving in a different direction. Some have queried the handling of the situation but should it come as that much of a surprise?
What do we know about the management team at Anfield? They have some of the best brains in data working for the club and Michael Edwards, the CEO of Football for FSG and former Sporting Director of Liverpool, wants to win.
Despite some reports suggesting the club’s data models backed Slot to turn it around, nothing that is publicly available seems to tally with that idea. Since the start of 2025, the underlying numbers have painted Liverpool as a 63 point team. They finished the 2025/26 campaign with 60 points from an expected points (xP) haul of 62.
The results match the performances, and the performances have the Reds as a top six team rather than a title challenging one. This has been the case for roughly 75% of Slot’s time with the club.
Those in charge of the data at Anfield are geniuses, they aren’t wizards. That will have no doubt played a part in the club’s decision to prematurely end Slot’s stint on Merseyside.
Then there’s the Edwards factor. FSG invented a role to bring him back to the club. They backed him like no other, allowing him to sign off on a summer of spending never seen at Anfield.
Yes, Richard Hughes is the Sporting Director but Edwards is still heavily involved, especially with the multi-club model idea being shelved for now.
It wasn’t just Slot’s reputation on the line. Edwards, despite having a European Cup and two Premier League titles on his CV, wants to bolster his standing in the game.
He wants a dynasty. There’s a feeling he wants to detach himself from Jurgen Klopp’s success too.
Edwards helped assemble this new-look Liverpool team. He signed off on over £400million of spending. And his team finished fifth. They scraped into the Champions League after a disappointing end to the season.
The former Sporting Director is known to be spiky and ruthless. He doesn’t let sentiment get in the way of his decision making. Ian Graham, Liverpool’s Former Director of Research, revealed as much when speaking to the Independent.
“He is quite a spiky character. If he disagrees with you loudly and immediately, probably with a few swearwords in there as well. I come from an academic background where we have serious arguments but you put your point across and show some supporting evidence, you don’t just shout ‘this is f***ing rubbish’.
"But behind that spikiness is because he wants to get at the truth. Of all the people I have worked with at clubs, Michael is the only one, he has a real appetite for understanding detail, he is like a dog with a bone, saying, ‘what about this and how does this work?’
"If he wants an answer, he wants it yesterday and will keep on at you until you have got the answer. His quote to me was, ‘at the end of the day, I believe in facts and more information has got to be a good thing’.”
Edwards, and the rest of the senior team, will have looked at the data. They will have looked at the output of the players they spent big money on and they will have seen everything had tanked.
Slot, on many occasions during his final season with the club, openly admitted to not knowing why the Reds struggled. He said he’d gotten pre-match notes wrong. He said he’d struggled to break down low blocks.
And this continued to be a problem for the Reds.
No solutions. No fixes. No answers. For those in charge of guiding the club, this was going to be a red flag.
It couldn’t continue. So they made the difficult decision and removed Slot from his position.
But why now? The World Cup kicks off in two weeks and the Reds need a plan in place ahead of it. They need to be able to tell potential new signings who the Head Coach will be and how he sees them fitting into his vision.
Was it unfair? Perhaps the way it was handled. Was it unjust? No.
Liverpool finished 25 points behind the title winners, had no signs of an identity and showed no signs they could turn it around, winning just three of their final 10 in the Premier League and went winless in their last four with Champions League football now guaranteed.
Slot leaves as a title winner. He’ll be in the history books as the man who delivered title number 20 for the Reds. The man who did the impossible and succeeded Jurgen Klopp.
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