Dutch legend John de Wolf thought he had seen it all in almost four decades in football – until he came across Arne Slot.
De Wolf, the former Wolves cult-hero who opted to remain on the coaching staff at Feyenoord when Slot left the Dutch club last summer to succeed Jurgen Klopp at Anfield, has spoken about how a rousing speech by the Kop boss inspired him so much that he wanted to pull on his boots once again – at the age of 58.
The 62-year-old revealed how Slot’s words on becoming coach of Feyenoord in 2022 made him realise he was working with someone who was destined for the very top.
De Wolf, who worked under managerial names such as Rinus Michels, Dick Advocaat, Leo Beenhakker and Graham Taylor during a 17-year playing career, said: “On day one at Feyenoord, Arne gave a wonderful presentation.
“It was about how he wanted to play football with Feyenoord – and also what he was like as a person. I immediately thought: we have someone very special in the house.
“I also told him one after a meeting of the coaching staff ‘gaffer, you are getting me so bloody excited, I wish I was a player again.’ I just felt like wanting to play football under this manager instead of assisting him!”
De Wolf is quoted in a new book about Slot’s journey to Anfield called ‘Slot Ball’. The Dutchman has the Reds storming towards an unprecedented Quadruple.
Liverpool are six points clear at the top of the Premier League and also have a game in hand over closest challengers Arsenal.
They beat Spurs 4-0 on Thursday night to reach the Carabao Cup Final and qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League by topping the new 36-team group format.
Slot now takes his team to face Champions League strugglers Plymouth Argyle in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
