Why Arne Slot sack is inevitable after Liverpool title win

Arne Slot will become only the fifth manager to win the Premier League in their first season when Liverpool get their hands on the trophy.

What will happen next? If this list of debut-season title-winning managers are anything to go by, it will all end in tears. But then Chelsea do pop up three times and two of their managers… well, it’ll all add up soon enough.

Thanks to our friends over at Planet Football for being top of the Google search and saving me the two minutes of research.

Jose Mourinho (Chelsea – 2004/05)
Jose Mourinho’s first spell in England was an incredibly successful one, joining Chelsea in 2004 after an extraordinary Champions League win with FC Porto. He said he was special, and he was not wrong, going one better than Arne Slot by winning the League Cup before claiming the Blues’ first Premier League title.

Slot will be absolutely delighted if he experiences the same level of success that followed for Chelsea and Mourinho. A double was backed up with another league title, and in 2006/07, Chelsea finished second in the league while winning both the FA Cup and the League Cup. As we all know, it would eventually unravel for Mourinho in his fourth season at the club.

The Portuguese manager only lasted until September 20 after a disappointing start to the season, and Roman Abramovich did not hesitate to pull the trigger – something Blues fans would quickly become very used to seeing.

If Slot goes on to win two league titles and three domestic cups in three seasons at Anfield, we are pretty confident he will be given more time than Mourinho was 18 years ago.

Chelsea survived without Mourinho and now have five Premier League titles to their name, although The Special One is responsible for 60 per cent of them, having returned to Stamford Bridge in 2013 and leading the club to a first-place finish in 2014/15.

Slot will hope his career does not turn out quite as chaotic as Mourinho’s, and that he avoids contracting a lifelong case of third-season syndrome like his Portuguese counterpart.

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Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea – 2009/10)
Chelsea’s third Premier League title came under Don Carlo Ancelotti, five years after Mourinho’s arrival.

They finished potless in the season Mourinho was sacked, but Avram Grant did lead them to the Champions League final. They won the FA Cup the following season under interim manager Guus Hiddink, who had replaced World Cup-winning boss Luiz Felipe Scolari. The Blues really should have been Champions League finalists again but found themselves on the wrong side of a “f***ing disgrace” against Barcelona.

Ancelotti was a very well-respected appointment after incredible success with AC Milan. As his inclusion on this list suggests, he won the Premier League in his first season. And as the number of managers on this list also suggests, that is quite an achievement. An FA Cup win to boot still wasn’t enough credit in the bank to survive after a shocking *checks notes* second-place finish. In fairness, the Blues lost nine league games and were knocked out in the early rounds of both domestic cups. It was not good enough, and Abramovich did what he does best: sacked the manager.

Again, Chelsea then did just fine when it came to winning trophies, claiming their first-ever Champions League title – along with the FA Cup – under interim boss Roberto Di Matteo, making an abysmal sixth-place finish in the Premier League entirely irrelevant.

Ancelotti, meanwhile, went on to win some easy pots and pans at Paris Saint-Germain before spells with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton (naturally), and then Real Madrid again.

Manuel Pellegrini (Man City – 2013/14)
The only manager (until Slot and Liverpool do it) to win the Premier League in their first season at a club not named Chelsea, Manuel Pellegrini found success in a bloody brilliant year for England’s top flight.

Arsenal led the league longer than anyone else but absolutely collapsed, Chelsea looked like being contenders and Liverpool grip on the trophy slipped away. Pellegrini and Man City were there to capitalise and almost snuck in to win the lot.

Pellegrini was the long-term successor to Roberto Mancini and lasted three whole seasons at the Etihad before being pushed out following Pep Guardiola’s availability. The Leicester Season was his last, scraping Champions League qualification on goal difference. He did at least win the League Cup.

Three trophies in three seasons was unsurprisingly not enough to convince the City hierarchy that Pellegrini should stay over appointing Guardiola, and the Chilean’s career path afterwards is… interesting.

Hebei China Fortune came calling before a miserable return to the Premier League with West Ham but his time at Real Betis – who he joined in 2020 – has been pretty successful.

His West Ham tenure was similar to Julen Lopetegui’s recent spell: spend a load of money and get sacked halfway through the campaign.

Slot is 25 years younger than Pellegrini, so we are struggling to see a world where he is managing in China in two years.

Antonio Conte (Chelsea – 2016/17)
Back to Chelsea and another manager who left under acrimonious circumstances. Well, Antonio Conte only really knows acrimonious departures as we know very well.

The Blues won the league at a canter under the fiery Italian, claiming 93 points and scoring 85 goals. They didn’t start particularly well and after drawing to Swansea and losing to Liverpool and Arsenal, Conte switched things up to a three-at-the-back and the Blues won their next 13 league matches.

In Conte’s second season in England, the wheels came off as Chelsea’s title defence fell way short of expectations. They finished fifth but salvaged some pride by claiming the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Manchester United.

This did not keep Conte in the job but him and his coaching team at least made £26.6million in compensation.

Chelsea have not won the league since Conte left but have become European champions again and are hoping to return to the Champions League next season.

As for Conte, a Serie A title with Inter followed before a controversial Tottenham Hotspur spell. He is now at Napoli and still deemed a top coach, though a return to the Premier League feels pretty unlikely.

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