Four Potential Destinations for Arne Slot After Liverpool Exit
A year can feel like a lifetime in soccer.
At the end of the 2024–25 season, Arne Slot could do no wrong. The Dutchman had the Midas touch, having guided Liverpool to just their second Premier League title during his first campaign at the helm.
A record-breaking summer had pundits projecting a potential period of dominance for the Merseysiders, but it was these heightened expectations that contributed to Slot’s rather bleak undoing at Anfield.
He departs Liverpool with his Premier League winners’ medal safe and sound, but also with a diminished legacy. Slot grew increasingly unpopular among players and supporters by the time his reign came crashing down a week after the 2025–26 domestic season closed its doors.
Still, the 47-year-old is unlikely to have any issues moving forward. Slot remains very hireable, and there‘s bound to be multiple clubs who at least entertain a plunge this summer, assuming he wants to get straight back into it.
Here are four potential destinations for the departed Liverpool boss.
AC Milan
Milan have opted for a hard reset. / Mairo Cinquetti/NurPhoto/Getty Images
A pitiful title charge culminated in a woeful collapse towards the back end of an eventually miserable 2025–26 season for AC Milan. Massimiliano Allegri’s ideals remain antiquated, and Rossoneri supporters suffered plenty as a result.
Thus, Milan have pressed the reset button. Missing out on the Champions League, given their position of strength midway through the campaign, rendered Allegri’s position untenable, and he’s only one of several high-profile figures to get the chop.
Slot was linked with the vacant Milan job right after his Liverpool dismissal. A frontrunner hadn’t yet emerged in the race to succeed Allegri, but a Premier League title-winning manager may be whom they covet.
Milan will want to return to the 21st century with their next managerial appointment, and although Slot’s soccer can be rather functional, his teams, at their best, at least boast a coherent idea of how to use possession.
It’d be a big job for Slot, given Milan’s lofty prestige, and perhaps an opportunity that’d prove too enticing to ignore.
Bayer Leverkusen
Leverkusen missed out on Champions League soccer. / Jürgen Fromme/firo sportphoto/Getty Images
Another team embarking on a reset this summer is Bayer Leverkusen, although theirs won’t be anywhere near as hard as Milan’s.
The German club quickly realised they’d made a fatal error by hiring Erik ten Hag a year ago, replacing him with former Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand a couple of weeks into the season.
Hjuland was fine in the role, guiding the 2023–24 Bundesliga invincibles to the Champions League round of 16 and a sixth-place finish domestically. As a result, they’ll be in the Europa League next season.
Hjulmand was very much a stopgap. Leverkusen now want their next Xabi Alonso. Could Slot be the man? They’d reportedly been after Liverpool-bound Andoni Iraola, while Oliver Glasner is also supposedly on their shortlist.
Slot will surely now be considered, given his availability, and although Leverkusen represent a step down from Liverpool and Milan, the Dutchman would inherit a talented group of players with scope to boom again.
Ajax
A return to the Netherlands could be on the cards. / Rico Brouwer/Soccrates/Getty Images
There was talk of Slot returning to his homeland weeks before Liverpool fired him. The 47-year-old has been linked with the Ajax job, having helped the Eredivisie wrestle control back from the Amsterdam giants at Feyenoord.
Slot got the Liverpool job off the back of an excellent stint with Ajax’s fiercest rivals, lifting the league title in 2022–23—Feyenoord’s second of the 21st-century.
A move to the Johan Cruijff ArenA certainly wouldn’t go down well in Rotterdam, although several high-profile managers have jumped across the Klassieker divide.
2025–26 was tumultuous, to say the least, for Ajax, with three managers tasked with steadying the ship after Francesco Farioli moved on after their title collapse last season.
They’ve sounded out Michel as their potential next head coach, but Slot’s availability may trigger a change of thought.
Dutch National Team
Ronald Koeman’s contract expires after the World Cup. / Stefan Koops/EYE4IMAGES/NurPhoto/Getty Images
The Netherlands job has seemingly rotated between Louis van Gaal and Ronald Koeman in recent years, with the latter overseeing their World Cup campaign in North America this summer.
The Oranje, never before world champions and typically associated with glorious failure, were semifinalists at Euro 2024 and could be sneaky outsiders at the upcoming tournament.
Anyway, Koeman’s contract expires at the end of July, and surely Van Gaal won’t be taking the job on again. It’s time for an alternate face.
Koeman’s World Cup staff is laden with Dutch soccer heroes, including Ruud van Nistelrooy, and he may emerge a potential candidate to take the job after the tournament.
Slot hasn’t yet been linked with the national team, and it‘d be a surprise if he dipped out of club soccer at this juncture.
