Are Liverpool about to sack Arne Slot? No, they are not.

But, far more importantly, are Liverpool currently cack enough that we can pretend that they might? Yes, they absolutely are.

A p*ss-poor 3-0 defeat at Manchester City left their title defence in ruins long before Nottingham Forest turned up at Anfield and rolled the champions over.

Slot was warned that a defeat in that game could be terminal.

The form table makes for especially miserable reading but honestly, the actual table in which they have slid seemingly inexorably into the bottom half is not much better for Liverpool.

That’s more than enough at a time like this to at least have a look at who the top 10 in the current betting to replace him might be, according to Oddschecker.

 

6=) Xabi Alonso

Have to feel that, for now, this is a boat Liverpool have missed. There was a time, when we knew Jurgen Klopp was leaving and Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen were performing a season-long madness, that it felt like it was meant to be.

It still probably is, somewhere down the line. Real Madrid managers tend not to stick around for long no matter how successful they might be and the feelings between Alonso and Liverpool are clearly entirely mutual.

But if we are going to pretend the next Liverpool manager is something happening quite soon, then nah, it’s not going to be Xabi unfortunately.

 

6=) Diego Simeone

We would love there to be a day when Simeone brings his brand of sh*thouse sh*ttery to the Premier League but we always had the notion that it would be a post-Mikel kick in the arse appointment at Arsenal rather than Liverpool. But damn, would we love it.

 

6=) Fabian Hurzeler

There is precious little clamour for the Brighton boss to be given a bigger job; we’re not sure there would be rejoicing on the streets of Liverpool if Hurzeler was appointed, even though the Seagulls are in that group of clubs with Bournemouth and Crystal Palace in the Premier League table.

 

6=) Marco Silva

We firmly believe that it would be ridiculous for Fulham to think they can do better than Marco Silva, but it would also be ridiculous for Liverpool to allow him to fail upwards quite so spectacularly.

 

5) Julian Nagelsmann

And never mind Terzic, here’s the ultimate ‘future Premier League manager’. Absolutely nailed on to bring his unique brand of outlandishly dressed nerdishness to the Barclays at some point and thoroughly confuse and befuddle the press pack until they hound him out of Our League just to save their brains from exploding.

Absolutely possible all that happens at Liverpool, absolutely no chance of it doing so this season. After Nagelsmann has taken Germany to the World Cup next summer? Then we’ll talk.

 

4) Unai Emery

Yeah, fair enough this one. If Liverpool did for some reason decide that urgent action is required right now, then Emery is still really the most plausible current member of the Premier League manager class to step up. Has the big-club experience your Glasners and Iraolas lack, as well as European pedigree and the step up from Villa to Liverpool represents a smaller and thus less riskier one.

Funny old game, though, given how a couple of months he was heading towards Sackville himself after a now-turned-around ropey start to the season.

 

3) Oliver Glasner

Currently doing sterling work with Crystal Palace and it does feel like it’s probably a matter of time before someone with deeper pockets and grander ambitions wants to see what he’s made of.

 

2) Andoni Iraola

Currently doing sterling work with Bournemouth and it does feel like it’s probably a matter of time before someone with deeper pockets and grander ambitions wants to see what he’s made of.

 

1) Jurgen Klopp

There are still several people desperately – and in most cases we suspect deliberately – misunderstanding that answer he gave on a podcast about the prospect of returning to Liverpool. What he meant when saying it was technically possible that he returns to Liverpool is that it’s unlike the absolute impossibility of him returning to England to manage anywhere else there is a universe and a timeline where a slim chance exists that he is back in the Liverpool dugout.

He did not mean he is ready, willing and able to kick that bald fraud out of his dugout this month.

Still, though. Imagine if it did happen. Which, and we cannot stress this enough, it won’t.