We’re getting to that time of the year when pundits nominate their candidates for players and managers of the season, and Arne Slot is a sure-fire contender for the latter category.
In his first campaign after taking over from the legendary Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool head coach has his team on course to not just win the Premier League, but to potentially do so with a sizeable margin (they currently lead Arsenal by 11 points).
The Dutchman may have some competition for the individual accolade, with Nuno Espiritio Santo, Eddie Howe and Unai Emery also being namechecked in some quarters as the debate begins.
Ian Ladyman names Slot as his manager of the season
On the It’s All Kicking Off! podcast, Chris Sutton and Ian Ladyman named their manager of the season shouts. The ex-Blackburn striker plumped for the Nottingham Forest boss, although his podcast colleague couldn’t look past Slot.
The Daily Mail journalist said: “Coming to this country as Arne Slot has, to replace a manager like Jurgen Klopp: it’s the biggest challenge since David Moyes replaced Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in 2013.
“All he had to do was finish fourth, but to go on to win the Premier League and finish top of that Champions League group, it’s a massive achievement. As long as Liverpool don’t fall off a cliff before the end of the season, I am going for Arne Slot.”
Slot would be a worthy winner for manager of the season
If Nuno gets Forest into the Champions League (and potentially wins the FA Cup), it’d be an astonishing feat which’d certainly make him a worthy candidate in the Premier League manager of the season stakes.
However, similar to Ladyman, we’d have to go with Slot as the pick of the bunch, and not simply because his team will probably be champions in the next few weeks.
As the journalist pointed out, the 46-year-old had to contend with the weight of coming in straight after a club icon in Klopp, as well as navigating all the speculation over the contract situations surrounding Mo Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Liverpool weren’t a million miles off the pace last season, but having made just one summer addition to the squad that he inherited from his predecessor, to now have the Reds 11 points clear at the summit (losing just twice in 31 league games so far) is simply remarkable from the Dutchman.
So long as there isn’t an unthinkable collapse between now and 25 May, we’d 100% have Slot as our Premier League manager of the year shout!
