Feyenoord announced on Friday afternoon that it had broken open the contract with Arne Slot and extended it until mid-2026. After a transfer soap, in which he was emphatically associated with a transfer to Tottenham Hotspur, the 44-year-old coach committed his future to the stadium club. The rumors about Slot’s future caused unrest within the Feyenoord selection, the coach reveals.
On Wednesday, reports about Slot’s future followed in rapid succession, while the Feyenoord selection celebrated the national title in Ibiza. Slot received several apps from his players that day. “They texted me on Wednesday in particular,” says Slot at the press conference in the run-up to the Eredivisie match with Vitesse. “Appten said: ‘Trainer, you’re not going to leave, are you?’, says Slot. “What I sent back then – even though I knew I wasn’t leaving – was that they shouldn’t believe everything the media says. That had not completely reassured her.”
On Thursday morning, Slot sent his selection an app in vain that he would stay longer at Feyenoord. “It was a bit hopeless to send a message to boys who are in Ibiza at nine o’clock in the morning, so they probably heard that news in the media afterwards.” The trainer says that there are ten arguments to stay with Feyenoord. One of them is his family. “Although that is not a decisive factor, because if you become a trainer, you have to realize that you will sometimes be active in other places in the Netherlands or in the rest of the world.”
Tottenham Hotspur
He regrets the reports from England that Slot Tottenham would have abused to get a better contract from Feyenoord. “The conversation between my agent and Te Kloese started with the statement that I would stay with Feyenoord no matter what and that they should in no way feel that interested clubs were being used in the negotiations on that day. If you tell me something If you want to offer news, you do it based on performance or because you think I deserve it, but not under pressure from other clubs.”
“On Thursday morning, when so much noise arose and so much was said and written about me, I thought it wise to at least indicate that I would stay at Feyenoord anyway. This prevented me from writing things for another day and a half in which I would not be able to express myself properly. You have to accept that, because that is part of the profession. It did get a bit crowded, I must say. If the truth is different, I think you should communicate that. So that’s why we announced on Thursday morning that I would stay.”