Arne Slot will arrive at Liverpool with three of his staff members from Feyenoord, while he also tried to convince the manager of Shakhtar Donetsk to join him.
Slot is poised to take over from Jurgen Klopp at the end of the season after Liverpool and Feyenoord agreed a deal over compensation for the 45-year-old.
It was widely reported that assistant manager Sipke Hulshoff and head of performance Ruben Peeters would follow Slot to Anfield as part of his backroom staff.
Now it has been revealed that Etienne Reijnen, analyst and technical advisor at Feyenoord, was also part of the package finalised with the Dutch club.
Reijnen, 37, is a former centre-back who played alongside Slot at PEC Zwolle, before joining his staff in Rotterdam in November.
The news was relayed by Feyenoord source 1908.nl and corroborated by the Times‘ Jonathan Northcroft.
(Sipke Hulshoff, left; Ruben Peeters, right)
In appointing Hulshoff, Reijnen and Peeters, Liverpool have effectively replaced outgoing coaches Pepijn Lijnders, Peter Krawietz and Andreas Kornmayer respectively.
The Athletic‘s Adam Crafton also reports that Slot “tried and failed” to convince former assistant manager Marino Pusic to join his backroom staff.
Pusic was Slot’s assistant at both AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord, but left to take over as manager of Shakhtar Donetsk in October and “wishes to remain in that job.”
Though the appointments of Slot, Hulshoff, Reijnen and Peeters are yet to be confirmed, Liverpool have made major headway in addressing the exodus of first-team staff this summer.
Richard Hughes is now in place as sporting director, taking over from Jorg Schmadtke, with a new structure including David Woodfine as assistant sporting director.
Liverpool may look for a successor to the outgoing head of recovery and performance Andreas Schlumberger, while the hope is that elite development coach Vitor Matos is also replaced.
No further departures are confirmed at this stage, but the likelihood is that more of the staff Klopp brought in will be considering their futures.
Head of nutrition Mona Nemmer is a hugely influential figure behind the scenes, but could be one of those weighing up whether to join Klopp in leaving.
There appears no desire to part ways with long-serving head of goalkeeping John Achterberg nor coaches Claudio Taffarel and Jack Robinson.
Liverpool’s other fitness, analytics and matchday staff are likely to be retained as part of Slot’s new backroom.
Fan Comments