Arne Slot has refused to reveal how close he came to becoming Tottenham Hotspur manager last year, attributing his admiration for Sunday’s opponents to their commitment to attacking football.
The Liverpool head coach, whose side visit Spurs on Sunday with the chance to lead the Premier League table on Christmas Day, referred to his May 2023 statement when he extended his contract with Feyenoord for another year before later joining the Reds.
Slot had been linked with the Tottenham job before Ange Postecoglou’s appointment, but he ended speculation at the close of the 2022/23 campaign by declaring his “wish is to stay at Feyenoord and continue working on what we created last year.”
When asked how close he was to taking the Spurs role, Arne Slot declined to provide further details, simply saying: “You can [ask] but I think it’s the same answer that I always give you about Mo Salah’s contract situation and those things!
“No, I always said that in football and in general, so many things that are said are not true.
“But the problem is that the ones who know do not want to talk about it and the ones who don’t know do want to talk about it. That sometimes happens in football.
“You know better than me.
“There are players or managers who do want to talk to you and tell you off the record what has happened, but that is always one part of the truth.
“I’ve always preferred not to say anything about it. It might be true, it might not be true.
“I’ll leave it with what I said back then. I was really happy that I stayed at Feyenoord. That I can say.”
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