Liverpool chief Richard Hughes may have just revealed Arne Slot plan | Football | Sport

The timing was undoubtedly no coincidence. Less than 24 hours after the transfer window shut, Liverpool released a video on Tuesday morning featuring head coach Arne Slot, sporting director Richard Hughes and chief executive Billy Hogan in discussion during the latest instalment of ‘The Reds Roundtable’ programme.

As an official club production, it will inevitably attract criticism for being little more than a public relations exercise. Nobody would have expected it exploring in depth the challenges the Reds have encountered since claiming the Premier League title, though developments over the past eight months proved impossible for the trio to entirely sidestep.

The primary message, however, was blindingly clear. Should Liverpool be considering removing Slot as head coach in the near term, this footage did an exceptional job of concealing such intentions.

Filmed earlier in January, Hughes’ acknowledgement that Slot isn’t being evaluated on a day-to-day basis effectively amounted to confirmation that his position will only be thoroughly reviewed at the end of what has proved an enormously challenging campaign for the Dutchman.

Undoubtedly, the ‘Slot out’ movement that rapidly formed during the turbulent autumn period is unlikely to be satisfied anytime soon. Instead, the primary fascination stemmed from transfer discussions, with Hughes acknowledging that Slot hasn’t consistently received the players he’s desired.

That, naturally, is hardly unprecedented. Managers and head coaches nearly always crave more than their club can provide during the transfer window.

However, it proved particularly striking given the unsuccessful late bid to strengthen Slot’s defensive choices for this season, with Lutsharel Geertruida ultimately staying on loan at Sunderland from RB Leipzig.

Liverpool, nevertheless, managed to finalise one transaction with the £60million acquisition of centre-back Jeremy Jacquet from Rennes, the 20-year-old arriving at Anfield during the summer.

The Reds are no strangers to such ‘postponed’ transfers, with Giorgi Mamardashvili, Naby Keita and Divock Origi serving as previous examples. And those represent merely the arrangements that became public knowledge.

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Perhaps it shouldn’t have been unexpected considering Hughes’ reasoning behind the modest expenditure during Slot’s inaugural window and the record-breaking £450m worth of arrivals that materialised 12 months later. What unfolds this summer will have been planned well in advance.

“It was obvious the first thing to do when he came here was to evaluate a very talented squad and how they are going to transition into a new regime,” said Hughes. “Clearly ‘very well’ was the answer last year.

“But in a squad game there are so many players whose game time perhaps isn’t what they wanted it to be, so we had to look at other opportunities for them.

“We knew the first summer together wasn’t going to be a particularly active one. Alongside the ownership with their long-term vision, they like to do things with all the metrics and the data in their favour, and the best way to do that is to prepare one year ahead, one summer window to the next.

“So we deliberately didn’t do a lot in our first season coming in but knew we could identify throughout the course of last year players who could come in to help the squad. The ages of the players we have recruited is very deliberate to make sure we are not only competitive now but competitive for the mid-term future. Realistically that’s all you can control.

“The main thing for Arne is on the pitch, short-term and mid-term. The people have a lot to look forward to and I think that’s very much the case here.”

Extended recruitment strategies are seldom tied exclusively to one manager or head coach at any football club. Yet all indications suggest Liverpool’s summer transfer activity will be tailored for and developed alongside Slot’s input.