Liverpool manager Arne Slot has admitted he asked questions of Richard Hughes when he came calling to hire him from Feyenoord.
ViaPlay have an interview with the Liverpool manager today in which he discusses his arrival at Liverpool and the work they put in to get him.
Slot arrived at Liverpool last summer to replace Jurgen Klopp and has been a massive success since, leading Liverpool to the Premier League title in his first season with an impressive first campaign in charge.
He’s built on his already growing reputation from the Netherlands were he had been a huge success at Feyenoord, leading them to the Dutch title, cup and final of the Europa Conference League.
It was that success that attracted Liverpool, but Slot admits he had questions of his own before accepting the job.
“Yeah, I’m not sure if I asked him but it’s definitely a question that I could have asked,” he said when asked if he asked Richard Hughes, ‘why me?’
“If someone is interested or a club is interested, why is a question I will ask that question because we performed really well at Feyenoord, we were in the final of the Conference League, we won the league, we won the cup.
“So, if its only about winning things then I’m less interested. I also want to hear that they like the playing style, player development and all these kind of things. maybe that they even like me as a person. So that they did their homework.
“That is almost a stupid question to ask of someone from Liverpool. If there’s ever a club that did its homework, its Liverpool with all the data. I notice this now also when we’re interested in certain players.”
Liverpool have become a bastion of the power of data research thanks to the likes of Julian Ward, Michael Edwards and now Richard Hughes.
It was that team that were key to the appointment of Slot, identifying him as the ideal candidate while a slew of bigger names were linked with the position.
They did their research on the Dutchman, and he admits he was left shocked by the level of effort they went to, including a secret trip from Ward.
“Julian Ward was someone I knew from five years ago because I visited Liverpool once when he did the loans,” he added.
“He told me, I think a month before Richard told me, “I’m going through Europe, I’m interested in certain clubs work, can I come to your place as well?” I said yes, of course.
“He was there for one or two days and looking back at it now he wasn’t there for just learning, he wanted to know how I worked and hear it from the staff how the cooperation was and how we worked together. So, again, an example of how they all work to find the best possible player or manager.”
