Spurs considered hiring the Dutchman 18 months ago before he committed to Feyenoord for another year and later succeeded Jurgen Klopp at Anfield
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Arne Slot's decision to stay at Feyenoord in 2023 for one more year has been vindicated. Having just led the Rotterdam giants to their first Eredivisie title in six years, he was linked with the vacant post at Tottenham.
However, he did not make the move to north London, and Spurs instead turned to Celtic's Ange Postecoglou. Slot would instead get his long-awaited shot at Premier League stardom a year later when Liverpool came calling in search of a worthy successor to Jurgen Klopp.
This season, the fortunes of Postecoglou and Slot have wildly differed, though there is a danger of both being left short by their respective employers. Sunday will mark the first meeting between two esteemed underdog coaches who could be heading down a similar path despite their difference in the Premier League table.
Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱AFPWhy Slot didn't join Spurs
There are disputed accounts of Tottenham's interest in Slot back in May 2023 when they were nearly two months into their hunt for a permanent replacement to Antonio Conte, who infamously threw his toys out of the pram in an extraordinary press conference after watching his side blow a two-goal lead in a 3-3 draw at Southampton.
It's lost to history that 90 percent of Conte's rant was essentially calling his players crap, with the minority aimed at why Spurs have only won one trophy in two decades of Daniel Levy's chairmanship. That, though, is what resonated with the masses. "Tottenham's story is this!" the Italian exclaimed at his highest octave.
Spurs chased Julian Nagelsmann and considered Luis Enrique before they set their sights on Slot, who signed a new Feyenoord contract days after speculation over his future started. Club sources maintain they never made an approach and so weren't necessarily 'rejected', but the optics weren't great.
Slot, meanwhile, outlined his ambitions to lead Feyenoord into the Champions League and revealed his off-field interests played a role in his decision: "It is also the way you work. It's not always that you come into the place where you can work like we can here and be happy, professional-wise but also family-wise."
Given the upheaval at Spurs, that seemed a fair enough reason to stay.
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Slot's commitment to Feyenoord left Tottenham open to further ridicule. They had gone through a similar ordeal only two years prior when they took months to replace Jose Mourinho, eventually appointing Nuno Espirito Santo after his exit from Wolves.
All the while, the club were trying to bat away suggestions Harry Kane, their all-time leading scorer and arguably best player ever, could be sold. Problems were bad enough for any new manager without the threat of the striker leaving too.
After Nagelsmann, Luis Enrique and Slot, Postecoglou emerged as the frontrunner after two hugely successful seasons north of the English-Scottish border with Celtic. By this point, much of the Spurs fanbase were irate and disillusioned with ownership, though most were willing to attach themselves to the charismatic Aussie in hope rather than expectation.
Getty Images SportPostecoglou left short
Indeed, Postecoglou's job was made tougher by Kane's departure only a day before Spurs' Premier League season began. His £86m sale did, at least, fund a transformative window in which several new core players arrived, including Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven and Brennan Johnson.
That still doesn't make up for the departure of a 30-goal striker and the captain of England, for whom a direct replacement wasn't signed until 12 months later. Postecoglou led Tottenham to a respectable fifth-placed Premier League finish when so many had predicted them to crash and burn without Kane, instead improving their final standing by three places from the previous year and instilling an enthralling style of play.
Dominic Solanke, eventually brought in to fill the Kane-shaped void, was the only fully-grown adult brought in by Spurs permanently heading into 2024-25. That's a major reason behind their struggles so far this term, as headed into the weekend sat in tenth.
At their best, Tottenham are the best team to watch in the Premier League and maybe Europe, but they don't have the full squad to sustain that peak. It's brought serious questions over Levy and his on-pitch ambition.
Getty ImagesAnfield parallels
To Tottenham, Liverpool are what they aspire to be. They are not bankrolled by a nation and spend well within their means, perhaps a little too cautiously at times. Their organic resurgences under Mauricio Pochettino and Klopp, respectively, led to their meeting in the 2019 Champions League final.
Whereas Liverpool had reached a second successive European finale and boasted a history of such experience, there was little about Spurs which suggested belief of heading back to the grandest stage. Hugo Lloris' anecdote about Levy gifting watches to the squad with 'finalists' engraved on them confirmed wider assumptions that the club weren't destroyed by losing.
Those upstairs at Anfield receive some rather harsh criticism from a minority of their supporters for a perceived lack of spending in the transfer market, at least compared to their rivals. In that sense, they are the infinitely more successful version of modern Tottenham, whose fans look over at the transformation on Merseyside and must wonder 'what if'.
Liverpool did, however, have their own troubles initially sourcing the right man to come in for Klopp. Like Spurs, the club played down links to one of their supposed top targets, this time in Bayer Leverkusen's Xabi Alonso. Sporting CP's Ruben Amorim, now of Manchester United, was also in their thinking before Slot became the main focus.