Arne Slot’s Farewell Tour reached fever pitch as Het Legioen soaked in the moment
Perhaps it was all the better that PSV Eindhoven had officially ended dethroned Feyenoord as Eredivisie champions earlier on Sunday. With Feyenoord mathematically condemned to a second-place finish ahead of their meeting with PEC Zwolle, attention could turn to honouring Arne Slot, the manager who has transformed Feyenoord in the past three years and who will join Liverpool at season’s end. Few end-of-season dead rubbers have held this type of emotional sway, which moved even the always cool-headed Slot to blow kisses towards the stands after the final whistle.
Sunday’s fixture was the start of a brief valedictory tour for Slot as Feyenoord manager, whose transfer to Liverpool as Jürgen Klopp’s successor is all but confirmed. While no official announcement had been made as of Sunday evening, Dutch football media have spent much of the past fortnight, since Liverpool’s interest became apparent, speculating on who might succeed Slot next season; Voetbal Internationaal has termed the task of filling Slot’s shoes the ‘Impossible Job.’ English media, too, had descended on De Kuip for Slot’s press conference on Friday, forcing Slot to spend much of his presser devising new ways of making clear that no contract had yet been inked which would formalize his move to Anfield. Yet while Slot spent much of the build-up to the game growing acquainted with the famously capricious English press, Feyenoord’s opponent was a familiar one: Slot bookended his playing career at PEC Zwolle, and had a chance to catch up with former teammate Bram van Polen, the PEC captain who is retiring at the end of this campaign.
For a sense of why Feyenoord’s next manager faces inevitable comparisons, Feyenoord supporters’ choice of song as the two teams entered the pitch before kickoff is enlightening. As is traditional, Het Legioen sang ‘Hand in Hand Kameraden’ while the players streamed out of the tunnel, before immediately thereafter breaking into chants of Arne Slot’s name. That verbal linkage between Slot and the club he joined just three years ago shows how Slot has reconstructed Feyenoord, giving the club a lustre and confidence wholly absent in the team that straggled to fifth in 2020/21 under Dick Advocaat. Of Sunday’s matchday squad, only goalkeeper Justin Bijlow and defender Lutsharel Geertruida predate Slot’s arrival at Feyenoord. Both have become full Dutch internationals since the start of Slot’s tenure, and are likely to be amongst a phalanx of Feyenoord players representing their countries at Copa America and the Euros this summer. Before the match, the Austrian club captain Gernot Trauner and Iranian winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh were honoured for each having played 100 matches in Feyenoord’s colours; both were signed on the cheap in Slot’s first transfer window and have been figureheads of an era in which the domestic league and cup have been won and the inaugural Conference League final heart-wrenchingly lost after a 19-match, 10-month run.
Slot picked Ayase Ueda to start up top in Santiago Giménez’ place, a decision which paid off on 32 minutes when the Japanese striker poked a poacher’s goal past Jasper Schendelaar for his first Feyenoord home goal. It’s been a frustrating season for Ueda, Feyenoord’s record signing, who had to deal with a PEC backline stationed practically in its own penalty box, but his strike was soon followed by a second for Feyenoord after Quinten Timber’s drive towards goal was diverted in off the back of Luka Ivanusec, the Croatian winger getting credited for his second goal in two games. The goals were the result of Feyenoord just easing out of vacation mode as the first half aged and starting to stretch PEC, with Geertruida frequently easing into midfield from his nominal right-back position to create overloads in the middle while the wingers ensured continued width.
The hosts showed more of the swashbuckling style that’s earnt the moniker Slotball after the half, and could have decided the game just after the restart when Ueda won a penalty, but the Japanese’s mediocre effort was parried by Schendelaar in the gathering twilight. Instead, it was the man Ueda dislodged from the starting eleven against PEC- Santiago Giménez- who put the 3-0 on the board just beyond the hour, converting another penalty with his first touch after coming on in a triple subsititution. The Mexican striker also played a role in adding Feyenoord’s fourth after his header was tapped home at the far post by Geertruida with 80 minutes gone. But it’s what happened next that will live longest in the memory.
With the match in its closing stages, the crowd began to serenade Slot increasingly vocally. Though Feyenoord will still host the derby against Excelsior on the final day of the season, part of the North Stand at De Kuip will have to be closed for that match due to firework use in the KNVB Cup semi-final, with season-ticket holders in the affected sections banned from entering the stadium for that game. And so, for part of Het Legioen Sunday was the final time to pay tribute to the manager they have beatified for his work. In the 82nd minute, as the crowd alternatingly sang ‘Stand Up for Arne Slot’ and ‘Sit Down for Arne Slot’, drawing thankful applause from the manager, Giménez added a fifth from a classic Feyenoord-under-Slot attacking move down the right. It was a fine moment for Giménez, good for a brace after having failed to score since 10 March, and an even finer one for the faithful at De Kuip. Feyenoord’s tagline throughout the Slot years has been ‘Making Memories’, and that moment of magical interplay between fans, players and manager is a fitting accompaniment to a memory bank already featuring trophies, routs against Ajax and statement wins in Europe.
There was still one more memory to be made after the final whistle. Unlike Klopp, Arne Slot doesn’t typically celebrate victories by gesticulating wildly to the fans behind the goal, leaving that to his players instead. Here, though, it was Slot who led the applause in front of the North Stand, opening his arms and soaking in the love. It was Slot, too, who led the crowd in the call-and-response ‘Komen Wij Uit Rotterdam?’ chant typically conducted between fans and the players after a win. He may be departing, but Arne Slot is doing so as a Rotterdam folk hero.
Inthehalfspace 