The greatest test of Slot’s enduring legacy will come after his move to England
Rotterdam is not a city known for its sentimentality. Bombed to smithereens by the Nazis, its city centre was rebuilt in an unapologetically modernist style, discarding its canals for wide boulevards. Rotterdam’s trademark musical style, gabber, distinguishes itself with ear-pounding BPMs which lend themselves more to frantic hakken than to nostalgia. The city profiles itself as a destination for people looking to ‘Make It Happen’, as Rotterdam’s promotional slogan reads. Looking back isn’t on the agenda.
Sunday, however, was an exception, as Rotterdam bade farewell to Arne Slot, the departing Feyenoord manager who reinvigorated and revolutionized Feyenoord in his three years in charge, restoring the club’s position at the Eredivisie’s top table. Slot, who will succeed Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool next season, was the focus of all pre-match attention, thoughts cast back to the high points of Slot’s reign: the thrashings of Ajax, the run to the Conference League final, the procession to last season’s league title. Feyenoord’s season-closing 4-0 win over Excelsior was almost a footnote as De Kuip serenaded Slot one final time, before Slot walked a lap of honour around the pitch under the schmaltzy strains of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone.’ It even began to rain lightly as De Kuip waved goodbye, that glorious cliché being accompanied by moist eyes in the stands.
Slot’s tenure in Rotterdam is now at a close, but he leaves a lasting imprint at Feyenoord. Feyenoord are yet to announce a successor- though Marino Pusic, previously Slot’s assistant at Feyenoord and currently working at Shakhtar Donetsk, and Borussia Dortmund assistant Nuri Sahin are rumoured to be among the candidates- but whoever is appointed will inherit the foundations and expectations laid down by the Slot Revolution. That successor will also have to step out from under Slot’s narrative shadow and create his own story arc for a new era at Feyenoord.
The new manager will step into a markedly changed club from the Feyenoord which Arne Slot inherited three years ago. Under Slot’s predecessor Dick Advocaat, Feyenoord were a club ensnared in cobwebs, typically recruiting players successful at mid-table Dutch clubs who then often flattered to deceive in De Kuip and unable to generate significant revenue through player sales. Feyenoord have undergone a massive professionalization since 2021, with an expanded scouting team, improved academy and a new willingness and ability to seek out young talent from abroad to develop at Feyenoord and sell on for a princely sum. Not all these changes were directly Slot’s doing but, according to Mark from @KuipTalk, a Twitter account with over 20,000 followers that posts Feyenoord-related news in English, Slot was the ‘flywheel for innovations and changes’ at Feyenoord, benefiting from the improved culture around the club and in turn validating those changes by engineering success on the pitch.
The success of the Slot Revolution also means that the new manager will enter a financially healthier club, with more money to spend on the squad than any recent Feyenoord gaffer. Both of Feyenoord’s record player sales- of Luis Sinisterra to Leeds United for €25 million and Orkun Kökcü to Benfica for €30 million- came in the past two close seasons, their transfer sums having been driven up by improvement under Slot’s tutelage. Strong performances in European play have also increased the cash at Feyenoord’s disposal. In each of Slot’s three seasons in charge, Feyenoord made it into the knockout stages of European competition, helping the club earn upwards of €56 million in revenues from UEFA since the 2021/22 season. Feyenoord can additionally look forward to a guaranteed €18.5 million in UEFA revenue next season after qualifying for the Champions League following this season’s second-place finish in the Eredivisie. That increased flow of money also allows Feyenoord to invest significantly more in the squad, helping success breed success.
Perhaps the greatest test of the Slot Revolution’s long-term success, however, will take place with its eponym departed. Though Slot was extensive in his praise of Feyenoord’s backroom staff in his final post-match interview on Sunday, the absence of a technical director at Feyenoord means general director Dennis te Kloese must take sole responsibility in seeking and appointing a manager who can be the new standard-bearer of a rejuvenated Feyenoord. Even more importantly, Te Kloese will have to make sure that the standards set in place throughout the organization over the past three years are maintained, from the first team to the academy and the medical department. To ensure Feyenoord’s enduring success, the Slot Revolution must be knitted tightly into the red and white hues of the club crest and be disembodied from the presence of any one individual at the club.
The nightmare scenario for Feyenoord is replicating the disarray which has plagued Ajax since Erik ten Hag left to manage Manchester United two years ago. Though the circumstances at Ajax were different, with technical director Marc Overmars having been forced out of the club over sexual misconduct only months before Ten Hag’s departure, the chaos in Amsterdam has stripped Ajax of their Eredivisie supremacy, finishing fifth this season, and has seen the Amsterdam club miss out on the Champions League two years running. Ajax have worn through four coaches in the past two seasons, and sacked technical director Sven Mislintat in September only five months after he was hired. All that means the football vision which led to three straight league titles for Ajax was swept away, leaving the club treading water while being overtaken by Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven. It is imperative that Feyenoord maintain the stability in the post-Slot era that Ajax have lacked post-Ten Hag.
Even if Feyenoord’s club structure remains solid, the new manager will face inevitable comparisons to his predecessor. Slot’s legacy stretches beyond the concrete successes of winning an Eredivisie title and the KNVB Cup; he took a team which had finished fifth in a miserable Covid season with empty stadiums and turgid football and got the club and its fans to believe they could beat anybody with swinging, attacking football in a packed Kuip. The anthem of the Slot era is telling: the Feyenoord masses sang ‘What are we going to do today? We’re going to win!’, and they really believed it, too. The bar is now set at a lofty level, and as KuipTalk’s Mark points out, it will be important for the new Feyenoord boss to be successful early and craft his own success story, starting by winning the Dutch Super Cup against PSV in August. Even if he does succeed, though, it will be almost impossible to escape the shadow of the man who metamorphosed Feyenoord from mouse to elephant.
Inthehalfspace 