Arne Slot looks all set to become Liverpool’s next manager. With a deal having been agreed with Feyenoord, it is surely just a matter of time before he is announced as Jürgen Klopp’s successor at Anfield.

The man himself all but confirmed the appointment at the weekend. Not only that, but his gestures towards the Feyenoord fans on Sunday seemed to indicate he was bidding farewell to the club.

Of course, with Slot’s appointment seemingly common knowledge now, Liverpool’s current squad members have inevitably been quizzed on their prospective new boss over the last few weeks.

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Cody Gakpo is the latest to give his thoughts on his fellow Dutchman. Speaking to ViaPlay, the forward said: "To be honest, I have never worked with him. I know, of course, that he is a very good coach who has shown it at AZ Alkmaar and at Feyenoord too.

"Of course, we played against [his Feyenoord] a few times, they were often difficult games. I am very curious and I think we are all very much looking forward to it."

Gakpo’s opinion comes after another of the Reds’ Dutch contingent had his say on Slot. Also speaking to ViaPlay following the derby day defeat to Everton, Virgil van Dijk commented: "I find it difficult to answer it now, of course. But I think Arne Slot might be one of the better Dutch coaches at this moment.

"I think the way he plays and the philosophy he has that he could be a Liverpool coach. Only in my opinion, what I also read and hear, of course, is that it is far from finalized.

"We will see. Next year we will focus on that."

It’s not just the Dutch players that have been asked for their thoughts on their prospective new manager though. Andy Robertson was also asked for his thoughts by TNT Sports ahead of the clash with West Ham, although the Scot didn’t give as much away as his teammates.

“It’s obviously something that we can’t focus on now,” Robertson said. “There has been a lot of talk in the last couple of days and it looks like it’s nearly finalized, if not finalized.

“But we have to focus on this season and focus on trying to give this manager our all till the end and give him the farewell he deserves with what he has done for this club. That is what us as players have to focus on and we will focus on the new era when it comes to it in the summer.”

Perhaps the most open on Slot’s expected appointment though has been Klopp. The outgoing Liverpool boss has already given his successor his approval.

“I like a lot about it, if he is the one, he wants to take the job. Really is desperate. Come on, let’s go for it. Excited.

“I like the way his team play football. All the things I hear about him as a guy, a good guy. Some people I know know him, I don’t know him yet. Some people tell me that he is a really good guy. I like that a lot.

“Good coach, good guy. Looking forward for the club if he is the solution or the man. I’m more than happy. It’s not up to me to judge these things but it all sounds really good to me.

“Best job in the world, best club in the world, best job in the world. Obviously now I even help by not finishing on a high, it looks like. There is space for improvement. Great job, great team, fantastic people. He ‘would’ take a really, really interesting job.”

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Alisson’s instructions to his Liverpool teammates before Sunday’s win over Tottenham have been spotted in new behind-the-scenes footage from Anfield.

The Reds returned to winning ways against Spurs as they recorded a 4-2 win in Jürgen Klopp’s penultimate home game in charge. After picking up just a point from their last two games against Everton and West Ham, goals from Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson, Cody Gakpo and Harvey Elliott wrapped up the three points as Liverpool guaranteed at least a third-place finish in the Premier League this season.

Strictly speaking, the Reds remain in contention for the title, although it looks to be out of their reach, with a win for either Arsenal or Manchester City this weekend putting them out of reach. Considering last season’s disappointment though, it has been a much-improved campaign.

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The season had threatened to be derailed though after a nightmare April, which also saw Liverpool knocked out of the Europa League by Atalanta. Eager not to end the season, and Klopp’s tenure, on a whimper, Alisson delivered some instructions to his teammates ahead of the clash with Tottenham.

In Liverpool’s latest episode of Inside Anfield, which takes a behind-the-scenes look on matchdays, the Reds’ goalkeeper can be heard passing on some advice to his teammates in the tunnel just before kick-off.

“Good press, good counter-press, good reaction. If they break our lines we have to follow through, chase them from the back," Alisson can be heard saying.

The instructions seemed to work, with Liverpool taking a 2-0 lead before half-time before doubling it shortly after the restart. The Reds were given a slight scare when Spurs pulled two goals back through Richarlison and Heung-min Son, although it proved too little, too late for the visitors.

Liverpool.com says: Alisson is of course part of the leadership group at Anfield, and he clearly holds plenty of influence in the squad. As one of the senior stars, and the best goalkeeper in the world, he is one of the players who sets an example for the rest.

It’s good to see him then speaking up during what has been a difficult period of the season for the Reds. Hopefully they can now carry their form into the last two games and give Klopp the send-off he deserves.

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Ryan Babel and another former Liverpool player are set to step out of their comfort zones as they look for love on a new American dating show.

Babel and former academy defender Lloyd Jones will be heading to Los Angeles to take part in Peacock’s Love Undercover. The show features five football stars all using a fake identity in order to keep their fame undercover, and see if they can find a partner.

Eighteen women will be attempting to win the hearts of the sports stars involved in the show described as a ‘modern-day fairytale meets buddy comedy’. The show gets underway on May 9, with new episodes dropping on May 16 and 23.

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Babel, 37, made 146 appearances during his time at Anfield, when he played alongside the likes of Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso and Fernando Torres. Jones, meanwhile, was signed from Plymouth Argyle in 2011 but didn’t make a senior appearance for the club, taking in various loan spells before leaving for Luton in 2018.

Jones now plies his trade with League One side Charlton Athletic. Still just 28, the defender is the only currently active player taking part in the show.

Babel and Jones are joined by former Eintracht Frankfurt midfielder Marco Fabian, Mexican goalkeeper Sebastián Fassi, and ex-Tottenham star Jamie O’Hara, who is now a prominent pundit in the UK.

The players will claim to have everyday jobs such as contractors, salesmen and restaurant managers as they look for love. Speaking in the trailer for the show, Babel says: “If she looks like Beyoncé, she's my type!”

In an interview with The Athletic, Babel said about Love Undercover: "The majority of my life I have played football, where you are trying to work out if someone you meet actually likes you for who you are or likes you for what you do. Now there was an opportunity to actually see if you could make genuine connections with your status, title and achievements stripped away. I’m curious as to how it will be received.

“I was very self-aware and very conscious to make sure that I didn’t necessarily make a fool out of myself. But at the same time, I think I played my part."

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Former Liverpool man Boudewijn Zenden has bizarrely quoted the Hollywood blockbuster film Forrest Gump when discussing the imminent arrival of Arne Slot. The Feyenoord boss is set to become Jürgen Klopp's successor at Anfield this summer as he calls an end to his nine-year reign in charge of the club.

While nothing has been confirmed by the club, Slot's arrival after a compensation package was agreed with his current Eredivisie employers now seems inevitable. The former midfielder guided them to the KNVB Cup this season - but failed to secure back-to-back titles following a dominant campaign from PSV Eindhoven.

Despite his exploits in the Netherlands, Slot is somewhat of a mystery to English football. He had previously been heavily linked with a move to the Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur after Antonio Conte's departure last summer but opted to remain at Feyenoord instead.

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Slot will now finally make the move to the top flight of English football after the 2023/24 season, with Zenden, also known as Bolo, giving an insight into what fans can expect from the new boss. Speaking to voetbalnieuws.nl, he said: "Someone said: ‘Life is like a box full of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get until you open it", a quote from Forrest Gump.

"A lot is going to change and you never know how that change is going to turn out," he continued. "I guess everyone was a bit surprised when his name came out of the hat. There were a few favourites.

"He likes to play a pressing game from the front, the build-up of an opponent and the earlier you can win the ball back in the opposite half, the closer you are to the opposition goal.

“Anyone taking over from Jürgen Klopp at the minute has a huge job ahead of him. But it will definitely be interesting to see how he deals with these different situations.”

Liverpool.com says: Zenden is right. Anyone taking over from Klopp has a huge task. However, Slot's high-pressing football could be a good fit for this Liverpool squad, who are used to playing this way under Klopp.

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Emre Can missed out on winning the Champions League with Liverpool by a single year. He departed on a free transfer at the end of the 2017/18 season, despite Jürgen Klopp being keen to keep him.

In his place, Liverpool signed Fabinho. The Brazilian was credited as one of the truly transformative signings that elevated Klopp's men from contenders to champions.

Meanwhile, Can looked to have made a horrible mistake. His switch to Juventus did not go well at all, and he was excluded from the Champions League squad altogether at the start of his second season, ultimately leaving for Borussia Dortmund in January after 18 months in Turin.

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Fortunately for him, that transfer has worked out a whole lot better. Can is now the captain at Borussia Dortmund, and while he has had to settle for a couple of 'close seconds' in the Bundesliga, he will now have the chance to right prior Champions League wrongs, having led his side to victory over PSG in the semi-final.

It's easy to forget, but Can did actually feature in that heartbreaking 2018 final for Liverpool, just days before Fabinho arrived and shortly before Can himself departed at the end of his contract. He came off the bench in the 83rd minute, replacing James Milner.

He was also technically a part of the Bayern Munich team that won the tournament in 2013, against his current side Borussia Dortmund. But he did not make the matchday squad for the final, having barely been involved all season.

Speaking to CBS Sports, Can has explained his feelings on those previous finals. He pinpoints what went wrong when he featured for Liverpool in Kyiv:

"It’s very different, I would say, because when I was with Bayern in the final I didn’t play, I was a young guy. I was in the squad but I didn’t play. With Liverpool I was a long time injured, I didn’t play the quarter-final or semi-final.

"Now I am playing all the games and when you play it’s different and it feels different. I am [the] captain of this team and I am very proud. If I talk too much I get emotional."

Can had indeed missed the final seven Premier League games of the season through injury in 2017/18, as well as the latter rounds of the Champions League. Prior to that, he had played at least 70 minutes in eight of the nine European games for which he had been available, including the qualifiers against Hoffenheim.

Would he have started against Real Madrid if fit? Those numbers suggest 'yes', although the fact Can was off at the end of the campaign might have had an impact as well. Either way, barring any late setbacks, he will enter this next Champions League final with full fitness, and as a key member of his team. Best of luck to him.

Liverpool.com says: Liverpool has something of an unhappy habit of facing fitness races for key defensive midfielders ahead of European finals. In 2022, against the same opponent, the same fate befell Fabinho; he was rushed back in from the start, having played no part in the FA Cup final or the last two league matches.

But you can't really make the case that Can's lack of fitness was the difference in 2018, a final that will unfortunately always be remembered for Loris Karius. While Fabinho was an upgrade in midfield, the addition of Alisson was the single biggest difference-maker.

Even so, it's interesting to wonder how that game might have gone if he had started, and indeed how the next few years might have looked if he had stayed. Can has come good on all his potential now, and while the manner in which he left Liverpool was disappointing, he will have plenty of Anfield support at Wembley.

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The 2023/24 season is all but over for Liverpool, as the team approaches the final two games of the Premier League campaign. Jürgen Klopp will line his side up for the penultimate time on Monday evening, as the Reds face Aston Villa at Villa Park.

Despite having dreams of a historic quadruple to mark the German's exit in style, Liverpool will be forced to watch on from home as the Europa League final, FA Cup final and Premier League title race unfold ahead of them. However, it secured the Carabao Cup earlier in the campaign, and has at least ensured it will be returning to the Champions League next season.

Following the final game of the campaign against Wolverhampton Wanderers next week, attention will then turn to a new era at Anfield as the team prepares for the imminent arrival of Arne Slot. The club has not confirmed the 45-year-old as Klopp's successor, but it feels inevitable at this point.

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Ahead of the end of the current campaign and an exciting summer of potential arrivals — both in the dugout and the squad — Liverpool.com takes a scan around the Premier League and the continent to see what's going on at the Reds' rivals. We'll start at Manchester United.

Man United 'set to sack' Erik ten Hag

Manchester United is ready to sack current boss Erik ten Hag, according to Football Insider. The Dutchman is under an increasing amount of pressure at Old Trafford, which was only made worse by the 4-0 drubbing against Crystal Palace on Monday night.

The Red Devils still have an FA Cup final to prepare for, but the report went on to state that even if Ten Hag secures the second trophy of his reign at the club, he will likely still be dismissed at the end of the season. New minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has done his due diligence regarding his successor and has been planning for his departure since he secured a stake in the club.

United currently sits in eighth place within the Premier League and crashed out of the Champions League earlier in the season, after finishing rock bottom of Group A. Bayern Munich topped that group and it is the Bavarian club's current boss, Thomas Tuchel, who is now being tipped as a potential next manager of Manchester United.

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Liverpool.com says: United has been poor this season, so it makes sense that Ten Hag's job is at risk. The club, like Liverpool, is entering a new era and it will be interesting to see how both teams perform next season.

Unlike Liverpool, though, no clear candidate has emerged yet to take over the reins at Manchester United. Tuchel would be a relatively safe pair of hands, although history suggests it wouldn't be the most long-term appointment. Meanwhile, there are whispers of Gareth Southgate. Appointing someone whose last club job was with Middlesbrough in 2009 would be a risk, to put it mildly.

Newcastle United reaches 'agreement' for defender

Newcastle United has reached an 'agreement' for Bournemouth defender Lloyd Kelly, according to reports. The 25-year-old is set to leave the Vitality Stadium at the end of the season and now looks to be set for a move up North.

According to Foot Mercato, Kelly's contract is set to expire this season and he has already 'agreed' terms with the Magpies ahead of the free transfer. Current Newcastle boss Eddie Howe knows him well following their time together at Bournemouth and is eager to bring him to St James' Park. Kelly is capable of playing as a centre-back or left-back.

Liverpool.com says: Kelly has previously been linked with a move to Liverpool, as the club searches for balance in the defense with a versatile left-footer. If he does choose to move to Newcastle, the Reds will likely pursue other options, such as Eintracht Frankfurt ace Willian Pacho.

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