While nothing is official quite yet, it looks like Arne Slot is all set to take over as Liverpool manager when Jurgen Klopp steps aside at the end of the season.
Slot is currently in situ at Feyenoord, where he has been in charge since July 2021. In that time, the 45-year-old has won the Eredivisie title, the Dutch Cup and reached the final of the UEFA Europa Conference League — a run of success that has seen him bestowed with the Rinus Michels Award (effectively the Eredivisie coach of the year award) in consecutive seasons.
Sources told ESPN last week that Liverpool have already reached an agreement with Feyenoord for the highly rated coach to make the move to Anfield.
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After being cherry-picked as the man to continue Klopp’s legacy at Anfield, Slot will become only the 10th Dutchman to take charge of a Premier League club and as such joins some big names (and a number of fellow Rinus Michels Award recipients as the Dutch coach of the year) in the pantheon.
Here we’ve sought to rank Slot’s compatriots based on their respective Premier League managerial careers, from the almost laughably awful to those who managed to at least collect a bit of silverware along the way.
Premier League games: 4
W/D/L: 0/0/4
Win percentage: 0%
Trophies: None
Highest league finish: N/A
Lowest league finish: N/A
Quite simply one of the most disastrous managerial reigns in Premier League history, De Boer lasted just 77 days at Palace — a stint that encompassed four league games, all of which ended in defeat.
Under De Boer’s tutelage, the Eagles got off to a truly woeful start in 2017-18, losing their first four league games without scoring a goal.
With tactics failing to mesh and morale already circling the drain, the club quickly decided to part company with their Dutch coach in September after losing 1-0 to Burnley, meaning De Boer still boasts the ignominious “honour” of accruing the shortest-ever Premier League managerial reign in terms of games (that’s just 360 minutes of game time).
He was replaced by Roy Hodgson, who went onto secure a fairly respectable 11th-placed finish.
8. Rene Meulensteen (Fulham)
Premier League games: 13
W/D/L: 3/1/9
Win percentage: 23%
Trophies: None
Highest league finish: N/A
Lowest league finish: N/A
While positively heroic in comparison to De Boer’s dissipation at Palace, Meulensteen’s reign at Fulham was actually shorter by a narrow margin (75 days in total). However, the Cottagers managed to pack in 13 games over that period.
The relationship began in November 2013, when Meulensteen was hired by Fulham to work alongside the incumbent manager and fellow countryman, Martin Jol. This arrangement lasted for one month until a dreary run of four defeats left the club mired in the relegation zone, costing Jol his job and leading to Meulensteen being entrusted to step up into the void.
Results did vaguely improve at first with Fulham winning three league games before the New Year, but a catastrophic six-game winless sequence throughout January and early February saw owner Tony Khan forced into pressing the panic button, with Meulensteen axed and replaced by former Bayern Munich boss Felix Magath.
Fulham were relegated three months later after washing up in 19th place, while Meulensteen, after stints in Israel and India, is now the trusted assistant of Australia national team boss Graham Arnold.
Premier League games: 17
W/D/L: 3/6/8
Win percentage: 17.6%
Trophies: None
Highest league finish: 16th (Sunderland, 2014-15)
Lowest league finish: 16th (Sunderland, 2014-15)
Initially appointed as an interim coach following the sacking of Gus Poyet, Advocaat landed his first Premier League job in March 2015 and proved an immediate success, helping to right Sunderland and ultimately steering them clear of relegation with a game to spare courtesy of a vital 0-0 draw against Arsenal — a result that left Advocaat in tears on the pitch after the final whistle.
With his caretaker duties performed, the well-travelled 67-year-old retired from management … but quickly reversed his decision when the Black Cats offered him a one-year contract over the summer.
Unfortunately, the 2016-17 season did not go well as Sunderland failed to win any of their first eight games. Advocaat then resigned in early October in order to give his successor enough to time to turn things around.
At the time of Advocaat’s resignation, Sunderland were mired in 19th place. Sam Allardyce then came in and hauled the team to a 17th-placed finish, thus avoiding relegation. Survival was confirmed with a 3-0 victory over Everton in May — a result that also happened to ensure the relegation to the second tier of neighbouring nemeses Newcastle United.
6. Ruud Gullit (Chelsea, Newcastle United)
Premier League games: 104
W/D/L: 41/26/37
Premier League win percentage: 39.4%
Trophies: FA Cup (1996-97)
Highest league finish: sixth (Chelsea, 1996-97)
Lowest league finish: 13th (Newcastle, 1998-99)
Gullit was a superstar signing for Chelsea in 1995-96, with the former Ballon d’Or winner proving a reliable veteran presence as the Blues went onto wrap up a comfortable mid-table finish.
After losing to Manchester United in the FA Cup final, Chelsea manager Glenn Hoddle vacated his post to take the England job. The Blues kept things in-house by hiring Gullit as player-manager and the Dutchman helped usher in a new philosophy at the Bridge, spending big money to sign exotic foreign names and insisting on deploying the same skilful, possession-based play for which he had become renowned during his playing career.
Chelsea finished sixth in Gullit’s first season and also won the FA Cup, thus securing the club’s first major honour in more than a quarter of a century. Gullit was then sacked the following February after a tense dispute with the Blues’ infamously pugnacious chairman Ken Bates, and Gianluca Vialli stepped in as player-manager.
However, Gullit returned to Premier League management the following season when he took over at Newcastle for the 1998-99 campaign. His new side reached the FA Cup final once again in his debut season, but things started to fall apart soon thereafter, with Gullit’s long-running feud with star striker Alan Shearer ultimately sealing his fate after the former pointedly left the latter out of the starting lineup for a derby game against Sunderland, which Newcastle proceeded to lose 2-1.
Three days later, Gullit was gone.
5. Ronald Koeman (Southampton, Everton)
Premier League games: 123
W/D/L: 55/27/41
Win percentage: 44.7%
Trophies: None
Highest league finish: sixth (Southampton, 2015-16)
Lowest league finish: seventh (Southampton 2014-15, Everton 2016-17)
Koeman first arrived in the Premier League when he took the Southampton job in June 2016 following the departure of Mauricio Pochettino to Tottenham Hotspur.
After some solid investment in the squad (bringing in the likes of Graziano Pelle, Dusan Tadic, Toby Alderweireld and Sadio Mané), the Dutch boss managed to steer the Saints to a seventh-place finish in his first season at St Mary’s, also qualifying for the Europa League playoffs as a result.
He then went one better in his second season as, with Virgil van Dijk installed at the heart of his defence, Koeman’s side rose to sixth place — which remains the club’s highest Premier League finish as well as their best Premier League points haul (63).
Having impressed on the south coast, Koeman moved to Everton for the 2016-17 season. His maiden campaign proved to be decent, with the Toffees finishing seventh and thus qualifying for Europe, all powered by the goals of one Romelu Lukaku.
However, after Lukaku left for Chelsea and embarking on a considerable spending spree over the summer of 2017, Koeman and Everton made a vastly underwhelming start to the 2017-18 season and found themselves wallowing in the drop zone by October. Defeat against Arsenal at the end of the month signalled the end for Koeman, who was sacked after just 16 months in charge at Goodison Park.
4. Martin Jol (Tottenham, Fulham)
Premier League games: 202
W/D/L: 75/51/76
Win percentage: 37.1%
Trophies: None
Highest league finish: fifth (Tottenham 2005-06, 2006-07)
Lowest league finish: 12th (Fulham, 2012-13)
Promoted to head coach by Tottenham in early November 2004 after previous incumbent Jacques Santini lasted just 12 games in English football, Jol proved a popular figure at White Hart Lane.
Both gruff and jocular in equal measure, the Dutchman oversaw resurgent performances in the league and decent cup runs helped to make his debut season at relative success. Things continued to improve steadily with the burgeoning strike partnership of Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane helping to propel Spurs to consecutive fifth-place Premier League finishes in 2005-06 and 2006-07.
The 2006-07 season proved to be much more taxing with Spurs languishing in the bottom three when chairman Daniel Levy eventually opted to pull the plug on Jol’s three-year tenure. It just so happened that a 2-1 home defeat against Getafe in the UEFA Cup proved to be Jol’s final game in charge, with Levy supposedly choosing to sack his manager via text message during the match.
Jol then returned to the Premier League with Fulham in 2011-12, who had first attempted to hire the Dutch coach the previous summer only for his then-employers, Ajax, to scotch the negotiations between the two parties.
After reaching the Europa League final under Hodgson the previous campaign, the Cottagers went out in the group stage under Jol but fared well on the domestic front, finishing ninth behind Liverpool on goal difference alone. Skipping forward, 2012-13 saw the club slip to 12th in the final Premier League standings and then down into the relegation mire in early 2013-14, at which point Jol was fired and replaced by Meulensteen.
3. Erik ten Hag (Manchester United)
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Ten Hag: You can’t make mistakes and win trophies
Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag says that his team need to cut out mistakes if they want to compete for trophies.
Premier League games: 72
W/D/L: 39/12/21
Win percentage: 54.1%
Trophies: Carabao Cup (Manchester United, 2022-23)
Highest league finish: Third (Manchester United, 2022-23)
Lowest league finish: Third (Manchester United, 2022-23)
After winning three Eredivisie titles, two Dutch cups and reaching the Champions League semifinals with Ajax, Ten Hag was selected as the man to replace Manchester United’s interim manager Ralf Rangnick in May 2022.
Ten Hag lost his first two games in charge (against Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford) to become the first United boss to do so since 1921. After a bad start, results did quickly improve starting with an impressive 2-1 victory over Liverpool in Ten Hag’s third outing. However, United’s rivals well and truly got their own back at Anfield in March when a 7-0 humiliation ensued — United’s joint-heaviest defeat on record and their worst defeat against Liverpool for 128 years.
The odd schism aside, performances generally remained fairly stable, and Ten Hag was able to procure a third-place finish in his debut season at Old Trafford while also reaching both domestic cup finals (beating Newcastle to lift the Carabao Cup in February before losing to Manchester City in the FA Cup.)
Now into his second season at United, Ten Hag is still yet to convince his many doubters with his side looking set to stumble their way to a top-10 finish, almost 30 points off the summit as we enter the final stages of the campaign.
United also suffered early exits from the Carabao Cup and the Champions League but they can at least take solace in the fact that Ten Hag has overseen back-to-back trips to face arch-rivals Man City in the FA Cup final at Wembley, following a strangely maudlin penalty shootout win over Championship outfit Coventry City in the semis.
2. Guus Hiddink (Chelsea)
Premier League games: 34
W/D/L: 18/12/4
Win percentage: 52.9%
Trophies: FA Cup (Chelsea, 2008-09)
Highest league finish: Third (Chelsea, 2008-09)
Lowest league finish: 10th (Chelsea, 2015-16)
Hiddink spent two brief stints at Chelsea, operating as a caretaker on both occasions and yet still can arguably count himself to be among the club’s most popular managers.
The Dutch coach’s first tenure came toward the tail end of the 2008-09 season when he stepped in to see out the campaign following the sacking of Luiz Felipe Scolari, while still maintaining his position as manager of the Russia national team.
The Blues went onto win 11 of their remaining 13 league fixtures (losing only one game, against Tottenham) as Chelsea finished third, qualifying for the Champions League and keeping the pressure on Liverpool and eventual champions Manchester United throughout the run-in.
Chelsea then vanquished Everton in the FA Cup final to deliver Hiddink his first major managerial title since winning the Dutch league with PSV Eindhoven in 2005-06, with fans clamouring for their caretaker to be given the job on a permanent basis. However, Hiddink had vowed to continue as Russia coach and instead chose to leave the Blues on a high.
He then returned six years later with the club in dire need after Jose Mourinho, also in his second stint in charge, had dragged his reigning Premier League champions into the bottom half of the table after losing nine of their first 16 games of the 2015-16 season.
Despite walking into a particularly turbulent and noxious atmosphere at the Bridge, Hiddink again worked his interim magic and hauled Chelsea up and out of the quagmire, going unbeaten in 12 games (which was then a club record) to climb six places up into the relative comfort of 10th place by the end of the campaign.
1. Louis van Gaal (Manchester United)
Premier League games: 76
W/D/L: 39/19/18
Win percentage: 51.3%
Trophies: FA Cup (Manchester United, 2015-16)
Highest league finish: Fourth (Manchester United, 2014-15)
Lowest league finish: Fifth (Manchester United, 2015-16)
One of the most respected and decorated coaches in European football, Aloysius Paulus Maria van Gaal was appointed by United for the 2014-15 season after David Moyes had been sacked the previous April.
Having inherited what he himself referred to as a “broken” squad, Van Gaal made it his business to rejuvenate United with a rejigged team and a fresh influx of youth talent. The Dutch boss certainly won hearts and minds with his unorthodox approach to, well, everything — but despite picking up impressive results in big games, he fell short of sustaining any kind of title push. Indeed, United eventually finished fourth, nine points off Manchester City in second place and way behind resurgent champions Chelsea.
His second season in charge at Old Trafford saw Van Gaal continue to implement shrewd, conservative tactics that made United hard to beat — though there was increasing consternation among fans, who began to grow weary of watching their side attempting to grind out results and yet still often come unstuck against supposedly inferior opponents.
A spotty campaign saw United again fail to keep pace with the teams at the top as they finished in fifth, qualifying for the Europa League (which they would go onto win under Mourinho in 2016-17) while Leicester City fended off Arsenal and Tottenham as they romped to their incredible title win.
Van Gaal did end his two-year association with United on a positive note by winning the FA Cup in his final game in charge, though that didn’t prevent him and his staff being unceremoniously sacked by the club just two days later.
