Slot smiles: “We are going to play in the Champions League, which I’ve never done before as a player and as a coach. So we’re very happy also that he can stay, we consider him as a huge talent and he probably will get an opportunity (elsewhere), but we hope that opportunity stays away a little bit longer.” There’s a lot of people looking at him and he’s highly regarded. And there’s no secret in that there’s a lot of interest in him. And I think at some point, probably when everything settled down, he also made up his mind that by doing well here, hopefully (doing well) next year also would open doors. “With a nice contract, with a supportive staff, people who all have best interests for the club in mind - then to convince somebody to step out of that is not an easy thing. If you take everything into account, you recognise what you have here is not so bad. After the celebrations when we won the title - the scenes last week at the city hall, how many people turned up - the emotion poured into it, you get a feeling this is a real big club.
“Family circumstances, but also Feyenoord are in the Champions League. “Circumstances also played a role,” Te Kloese says. Indeed, midway through last week, Feyenoord feared they may lose their coach. Slot rebuffed previous approaches from Leeds United and Crystal Palace but the Tottenham story had legs. During five hours of interviews, we are granted rare access across major departments: to the head coach, to the chief executive, to the medical and sport science team, to the player-care expert and to a leading scout, as they explain how they collaborate together to achieve success.Ĭrucial to it all is Slot, and it was not surprising when English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur made a move for the head coach at the end of this season. On a sun-baked spring day in southern Holland, Feyenoord have opened their doors to The Athletic. Will Newcastle’s new shirt sponsor be approved by the Premier League?.Four years on from Champions League final, what do Spurs have to show for it?.Along the way, Feyenoord recorded the longest unbeaten league run in the top seven leagues of European football (25 games) this season.
They spent just over €30million in total, meaning the club recorded a substantial positive net spend and brought the average age of the club’s squad down to just over 23 years of age. The club recruited 12 permanent signings, none of whom were older than 24, although they did take Oussama Idrissi (27) and Jacob Rasmussen (26) on loan from Sevilla and Fiorentina respectively. Only four of the XI who started the Conference League final defeat by Roma remain at the club.įeyenoord received around €70million in transfer fees and their aim, as the club seeks sustainability, is to reinvest roughly 40 per cent of their transfer income. It left Feyenoord’s squad in need of major surgery and deprived him of the four players who reached double figures for goals during the previous campaign.
Slot also lost important loan players, such as Reiss Nelson, who returned to Arsenal, and Guus Til, who had been on loan from Spartak Moscow and then joined PSV. Last summer, the club sold off some of their biggest assets, as Luis Sinisterra joined Leeds for €25million (£21.5m), Marcos Senesi and Tyrell Malacia headed to Bournemouth and Manchester United for €15million each, and Fredrik Aursnes joined Benfica for €13million. Slot’s reputation has been enhanced not only by the playing style but also by the age profile of his squad and his flexibility. “There are not many coaches in my age group who are not inspired by (the Manchester City coach) Pep Guardiola or his Barcelona side,” Slot says. Slot’s team are comfortable in possession, they are intense with and without the ball, they seek overloads to destabilise opponents, they have full-backs wandering into central midfield and they recruit wingers who will go one v one with courage and conviction. It is not only the outcomes that captivate suitors it is a style of play that appears to mirror the most successful and attractive teams in 2023, such as Napoli, Manchester City and Arsenal. Before Slot’s appointment, the club had not progressed beyond the group stage of a European competition since 2015. This time around, Feyenoord won the Dutch title and reached the quarter-final of the more prestigious Europa League. Slot arrived at Feyenoord in the summer of 2021 and in his first season the team finished third but reached the Europa Conference League final, where they lost against Jose Mourinho’s Roma.
In doing so, he became one of the most desired coaches in European football. Slot, 44, guided Feyenoord to their first Eredivisie title since 2017 and only their second since 1999.
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