Liverpool are said to be close to appointing Feyenoord manager Arne Slot as Jurgen Klopp’s successor at Anfield.
The Athletic’s David Ornstein had reported that Liverpool’s hierarchy are “prepared to be brave over popular” for their choice of the next manager. That tallies with the choice of Slot, who has confirmed his desire to leave Feyenoord and take up the opportunity.
The 45-year-old is highly regarded as a tactician, having led Feyenoord to the Eredivisie title last season. He’s already turned down Premier League offers from Leeds and Tottenham but evidently feels the time is right.
But it’s certainly a bold call from Liverpool, given some of the struggles some of the Eredivisie’s most high-profile exports have endured in recent years.
It appears that Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes are putting more stock in his tactical approach than his titles won, because they’re no guarantee of success in England.
Here are the last six Eredivisie-winning managers prior to Slot and how they fared after leaving the Netherlands.
Erik ten Hag
Where to start?
Having worked wonders at Ajax, dominating domestically while smashing Real Madrid and Juventus en route to a Champions League semi-final, Ten Hag was talked up as Manchester United’s answer to Pep Guardiola.
He quickly decided to be pragmatic at Old Trafford, ditching the possession-focused approach that worked so well at Ajax. And that brought results, with an early win over Liverpool setting the tone for a decent first year – the end of a six-year trophy drought with the League Cup alongside a respectable top-four finish.
But at the end of the second year we’re still waiting to see the Red Devils play in his image – or really with any identity at all.
He’s recently struck back at journalists, pointing out that he’s taken United to three cup finals in two seasons, but results and performances are getting more difficult to defend.
The nature of their FA Cup semi-final collapse against Championship side Coventry City, despite just about making it through, points to a coach on borrowed time. We’d be amazed to see him still in the job next season.
READ NEXT: Comparing Arne Slot and Erik ten Hag’s managerial records in the Eredivisie
Phillip Cocu
The former Barcelona midfielder, who made over 100 appearances for the Netherlands in his playing career, led old flame PSV to three Eredivisie titles in four years – 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2017-18.
He departed on a high in the summer of 2018, taking up a lucrative offer from Fenerbahce. But he lasted less than six months at the Turkish Super Lig outfit and was sacked after leading them to just three wins from 15 matches.
The following summer he joined Derby County. The season prior the Rams had made it to the Championship play-off final, but Frank Lampard then left to join Chelsea and star players Fikayo Tomori, Mason Mount and Harry Wilson returned to their parent clubs.
Cocu failed to get the financially beleaguered club back into the top six, but a 10th-place finish was respectable enough in the circumstances. He resigned a few months into the second season.
After two years out of the game, Cocu returned to the Eredivisie with Vitesse but once again resigned in November, with the club bottom of the table after taking eight points from their opening 12 matches this season.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Another one-time stalwart of the Netherlands national team, Van Bronckhorst made a very promising start to his coaching career at boyhood club Feyenoord, leading them to the Eredivisie title in 2016-17 – something he never managed as a player.
But subsequent seasons weren’t quite so successful and he made the decision to leave at the end of the 2018-19 season.
After a year with Guangzhou R&F – an 11th-place finish in the Chinese Super League – he returned to European club management at another of his former clubs, Rangers.
He succeeded Steven Gerrard, who left for Aston Villa, but couldn’t retain their Scottish Premiership title, struggling to compete with Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic.
While domestic results left something to be desired, he did lead Rangers to the 2021-22 Europa League final, where they were narrowly defeated on penalties by Eintracht Frankfurt.
Van Bronckhorst was sacked by Rangers in November 2022 shortly after the fans had turned, serenading him with chants of “Gio, get to f*ck” during a defeat to St Johnstone.
READ NEXT: Where are they now? Erik ten Hag’s first 15 signings as Ajax manager
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every Dutch manager in Premier League history?
Frank de Boer
“I would love to manage here [Britain],” De Boer said back in 2012, when his stock as a young coach was high. He’d already led Ajax to back-to-back titles and would go on to make it four in a row.
“But the project has to be right. I told Liverpool I was honoured but I was only one year in at Ajax, it was too soon. I needed to achieve more, and I did.”
Brendan Rodgers ended up getting the job, and Do Boer stayed put at Ajax until 2016, when he left for Inter.
He lasted just a few short months at the San Siro and was sacked after suffering seven defeats in 14 matches.
De Boer then went to Crystal Palace, where his stint was even shorter – given his marching orders after four defeats in four league outings. Jose Mourinho later called him “the worst manager in Premier League history” and his reputation has never really recovered from there.
Nowadays he’s in charge of UAE outfit Al Jazira.
Steve McClaren
Bouncing back from his ignominious spell as England manager, McClaren made the wise move to work away from the spotlight and did a superb job to deliver FC Twente’s first and only Eredivisie title – in a season in which a young Luis Suarez scored 35 goals for Ajax.
The Yorkshireman left on a high and joined Bundesliga club Wolfsburg but didn’t last a full season. Subsequent stints at Nottingham Forest, Twente (again), Derby (twice), Newcastle and QPR ranged from passable to disastrous.
These days he’s serving as Ten Hag’s assistant at Manchester United. As above, his days in the job are surely numbered.
READ: Boro, FC Twente & Steve McClaren’s bizarre up-and-down career
Louis van Gaal
The inimitable Van Gaal, of course, had already proven himself out of his home country with two La Liga titles at Barcelona.
In the mid-noughties, he returned to the Eredivisie with AZ Alkmaar and went on to bloody the noses of Feyenoord, PSV and Ajax by leading them to an against-the-odds league title in 2008-09, an achievement that further cemented his status as one of his country’s greatest-ever tacticians.
The veteran subsequently went to Bayern Munich, delivering a Bundesliga title in 2009-10 and leading them to the Champions League final.
Then there was Manchester United, whom he got back into the Champions League and delivered an FA Cup. But his football isn’t remembered especially fondly by the fans and his legacy in terms of signings hasn’t aged well either.
