Arne Slot has been discussing what could happen if his Liverpool side fail to qualify for next season's Champions League
Arne Slot takes his Liverpool side to Sunderland on Wednesday night, desperately needing to return to winning ways in the Premier League
Arne Slot takes his Liverpool side to Sunderland on Wednesday night, desperately needing to return to winning ways in the Premier League(Image: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
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Arne Slot believes his Liverpool future won't be determined solely by Champions League qualification despite admitting this season will only be "acceptable" if a return to the competition is assured. The Reds face a difficult task retaining their place among Europe's elite after Sunday's 2-1 home defeat to Manchester City cut them adrift of the top four and a guaranteed berth.
Slot's side have now won only six of their last 20 Premier League matches and head to Sunderland on Wednesday having claimed just one victory in seven top-flight games since the turn of the year.
His predecessor Jurgen Klopp twice missed out on a Champions League spot during his nine-year tenure, although Liverpool made an immediate return the following campaign.
With fifth place likely to be sufficient for qualification given England are in pole position to again be awarded an extra berth this season, the Reds will have to reel in one of Aston Villa, Manchester United or Chelsea.
And asked if qualification was directly linked to prospects of keeping his job in the Anfield hotseat, Slot pointed to the Reds' recent history and the fact there have been several extenuating factors behind the champions' disappointing defence of their record-equalling 20th title.
"That is a difficult question for me to answer because I don’t decide on my future," he said. "The only thing I do know is that it happened before and recently and it didn’t affect the future of that manager.
"But that doesn't guarantee anything, of course. In general, managers, especially at this club - maybe somewhere else - it is not only about results. Mainly, but not only.
"At some clubs they also look at the progress the players make, the progress the team makes, the circumstances are sometimes taken into account.
"That is not at all clubs, but I think I am working at a club that does look at those things, as it has shown in the past when the club did not qualify for the Champions League."
Speaking earlier on Tuesday, Slot had said: "If we don't have Champions League football, it has definitely not been an acceptable season."
The Reds boss, though, has stopped short of regarding qualification from Liverpool's current position as one of his greatest managerial achievements given the myriad of on and off-field issues with which he has had to contend during the past nine months.
"That's a difficult one because if I say yes then I can already see the headlines: 'Arne Slot thinks he's had a good season if he's going to the Champions League'," he said.
"It's important to know what is 'whatever else' (that has happened) because if you talk about 'whatever else' we could come up with six or seven things. I'm not sure everyone is always aware of all these things.
"I think you've noticed I'm not standing here and coming out with all these excuses. But the maximum we can achieve right now is qualifying for the Champions League and that's always what we aim for - to achieve the maximum possible at this moment in time.
"It wasn't the maximum possible at the start of the season, but at this moment of time it is the maximum we can achieve."
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When Liverpool last had a season without Champions League football in 2023/24, the following summer they signed only Federico Chiesa although there was a failed effort to lure Martin Zubimendi to Anfield after agreeing to pay £51million to Real Sociedad.
And asked if another failure to qualify could impact the Reds' summer rebuilding plans - despite having already committed £60m to signing 20-year-old centre-back Jeremy Jacquet from Rennes - Slot said: "I don't think I am the right person to ask that question because we are positive people over here and we don’t talk about scenarios yet about what happens if we don’t do this, we don’t do this, we don’t do this.
"So these conversations have maybe taken place but not with me involved, so I cannot give you that answer on how much that would impact our summer.
"What I can say is that in general this club has a certain model that we don’t spend money that we don’t have."