For most of the season, Liverpool’s only signing of Slot’s first transfer window looked predestined to join a long list – Alberto Aquilani, Fabio Borini, Mario Balotelli, Andrea Dossena – of Italian players who mysteriously never really did it at Liverpool.
Federico Chiesa’s Liverpool moment edging closer in Slot’s patient plan Arriving with no pre-season, the Italian appeared ‘left behind’, but could now be unleashed for the gruelling run-in.
As the last seconds of the six minutes tick away, Slot’s charges collapse to the turf in pure exhaustion, but also a kind of euphoria: an emotional link that will sustain them through the long winter months.
But when you are winning, every sentence you utter is a golden nugget of wisdom, every decision a stroke of genius, even the accidental decisions, even the ones that aren’t even really decisions.
He signed from Juventus for £10m right at the end of the window in August, missed the start of the season, missed the friendly tour, the bonding sessions, the card games on the plane, the visit to the Rocky steps in Philadelphia.
