Arne Slot addresses Xabi Alonso and manager sackings as Liverpool boss makes admission

Arne Slot addresses Xabi Alonso and manager sackings as Liverpool boss makes admission - 'No clue'

Arne Slot on the recent sackings at Chelsea, Manchester United and Real Madrid as the Liverpool boss assesses what the departures say about the current trends in football

Liverpool boss Arne Slot believes the sackings at Chelsea, Manchester United and Real Madrid is not an indication that managers and head coaches now have less power in the modern game.

In what has been a busy month of managerial upheaval at the elite level, Enzo Maresca was relieved of his duties at Chelsea on New Year's Day before Ruben Amorim was axed at Manchester United after reportedly falling out with director of football Jason Wilcox. Both managers were only appointed in 2024.

Xabi Alonso was dismissed, officially via mutual consent, by Real Madrid on Monday after losing to 3-2 Barcelona in the Supercopa the previous evening, bringing an end to his time in the Spanish capital after just seven months.

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Another former Liverpool player, Alvaro Arebola, is now in temporary charge of the 15-time European champions.

Slot himself has seen his future called into question this season, particularly in late November when his Reds side were on a run of nine defeats in 12 games.

But the Premier League title winner is not sure if the actions at Chelsea, United and Madrid are evidence of a wider trend at the cutting edge of the sport.

"Is it a change compared to three, four, five, six years ago? I don’t actually know," Slot said. "I can only speak for myself.

"I have worked for three years at my first club, should have worked four years at my second club, worked three years at my third club and now here for one and a half years.

"The clubs you are mentioning, we know with one of these clubs what kind of history they have. So I don’t know if it has changed.

"I see some managers working a long time at a club and one of our rivals has a manager (Pep Guardiola at Manchester City) who has been working for a long time.

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"Mikel Arteta has been working for a long time at Arsenal. I think there will always be examples of managers who work a long time at a club and clubs where managers don’t work for a long time. But Carlo Ancelotti was a long time at Real Madrid?

"I have no clue [if it is because of the sporting director model]. I simply have no clue as to whether that has anything to do with it. It might, but you surprised me with this question. I haven’t thought about that."

Slot added: "In England there is a manager and head coach and in other countries it is usually a head coach. Like I said Ancelotti worked for a long time at Madrid and other managers did as well.

"This is not common for Real Madrid that a manager is sacked - or whatever word you want to use - that a manager is sacked so early in his career.

"Let’s see if this is constantly going to happen but I think there are other examples as well."

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