Slot to Leeds, Amorim to Liverpool, Howe to Celtic: Premier League manager near-misses

Arne Slot could have been Leeds United manager, you know? Just imagine how differently things might look today – for him and for Liverpool – if that move had gone through.

With that in mind, here are nine times Premier League clubs and managers swerved potential disasters. Some of these bullet-dodges were by the clubs, some by the managers, and a couple were mutual escapes.

Arne Slot to Leeds United
The first Dutch manager to win the Premier League and only the fifth to do so in his very first year, Liverpool head coach Arne Slot’s stock could not be higher. It’s a far cry from being targeted by a struggling Leeds United.

After pursuing Andoni Iraola (more on that soon) and Carlos Corberan, the Whites turned their attention to Feyenoord boss Slot, who considered the move but ultimately said no, explaining his decision publicly: “It is true that I will stay with Feyenoord, I can say that with this one. That is clear, fans do not have to be afraid. It was a compliment that a club like Leeds was interested, but we are doing something great with Feyenoord. We are in a great position in the league, the cup and Europe. There is no disappointment. It’s certainly not a punishment to stay here.”

We are not confident Slot would have kept Leeds in the Premier League and had that relegation ruined his managerial CV, he most certainly would not have slotted in at Anfield last summer.

Ruben Amorim to Liverpool
Had Slot gone to Leeds and kiboshed his chances of being a gargantuan success at Anfield in the future, Liverpool might have appointed current Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim. Given the club’s dissimilar fortunes this season, we can’t imagine that the Reds would have been crowned champions with four games to spare.

Amorim was reportedly considered as Jurgen Klopp’s replacement but was overlooked after some capers involving West Ham and more importantly, because his system did not fit the playing squad, something the Red Devils unsurprisingly overlooked. Enjoy spending another £500million on players your next manager won’t want, Sir Jim.

Instead, Liverpool made the incredibly smart decision to replace Klopp with Slot, whose calmness, tactical nous, ability to keep his best players fit and a side of Mohamed Salah won them their second Premier League title.

READ MORE: No transfer panic, Slot’s impact and Mo Salah: How Liverpool won the Premier League title

Eddie Howe to Celtic
Budget, backroom staff and personal reasons were cited as the main reasons for Howe’s failed negotiations with Celtic in the summer of 2021. The Scottish giants ended up appointing current Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou and thrived under the Australian, while Howe remained out of work until October 2021, when he replaced Steve Bruce at Newcastle United.

We are fairly confident Howe would have been a success at Celtic Park but we are not sure where him and Newcastle would be today in that alternative football universe. Winning with an Old Firm club is fine…but it doesn’t quite get you on the England shortlist.

There is nothing wrong with winning trophies with one of the Old Firm clubs but the success Howe has enjoyed at Newcastle is incomparable, unless he was able to consistently take Celtic deep into the Champions League and/or Europa League.

The Premier League club’s filthy-rich owners will be very thankful Howe turned down the chance to manage Celtic because there are not many managers in world football who would be doing better, given the scale of the task at hand. Howe has done an exquisite job essentially building a giant of the game from 19th in the league to qualifying for the Champions League. His recruitment has been superb – something he was criticised for at Bournemouth – and he has brought the best out of players who had previously looked average like Jacob Murphy and Sean Longstaff.

If Howe was unavailable, where would Newcastle have gone? Steven Gerrard, maybe? That would have been a f***ing disaster. Perhaps they would have pushed harder for Unai Emery. I guess we’ll never know.

Mikel Arteta to Arsenal
If Manchester United post-Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsenal under Unai Emery have taught us anything, it’s that replacing a legendary manager is not an easy task. Arne Slot might have something to say about that having guided Liverpool to the title but the foundations in place at Anfield were certainly more stable than they were at Old Trafford at the end of 2012/13 and the Emirates at the end of 2017/18. And we are saying that with the benefit of hindsight because David Moyes did inherit a title-winning team.

Current Gunners boss Mikel Arteta was a serious option before the Londoners opted for Spanish head coach Emery in 2018. There is some questionable revisionism of Emery’s Arsenal tenure given his incredible success at Aston Villa but it was a very difficult time. The highs include reaching the Europa League final and accumulating 70 points in his first season but the lows include what happened in the Europa League final, 70 points only being enough for fifth, dull football like playing two attackers at home to Huddersfield Town, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing’ chin scratches, shameful recruitment and allowing 31 shots and throwing away a 2-0 lead in a match against Watford.

If Emery failed, we can confidently say Arteta would have too. Replacing Arsene Wenger was a poisoned chalice and an Arteta with 18 months less experience working under Pep Guardiola might have been a complete and utter disaster. We don’t think he would have claimed a cup in his first eight months to store some much-needed Credit In The Bank that rescued him in his first full campaign.

A sacked Arteta running back to be Guardiola’s sidekick would have been one of the worst things for Arsenal, who have been completely transformed under the Spaniard.

Antonio Conte to Manchester United
A strong case of dodged bullets in the direction of manager and club. This would have been an absolute disaster but bloody good entertainment and most likely better results than we have seen under Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim in 2024/25.

Ralf Rangnick spoke some home truths regarding the club needing ‘open-heart surgery’ and was shown the door, so just imagine how the Red Devils hierarchy would have reacted to some classic Antonio Conte meltdowns. This potential car crash of a relationship would have been cinema and the only people who got obliterated by the metaphorical bullet were fans of every other football club in the country.

There is no point banking on this happening one day because Conte – who is clearly still an elite coach despite his ill-fated Spurs spell – surely wants nothing to do with the Premier League again, and we would be surprised if a Big Six club would take two glances at him now.

Conte was strongly linked with the United job after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s exit but ended up moving to north London, where another perpetual Old Trafford target, Mauricio Pochettino, found success between 2014 and 2019. Again, given Pochettino’s recent work at Chelsea and with the United States national team, that looks like another case of bullets being dodged all round.

Andoni Iraola to Leeds United
Slot to Leeds was a strong rumour but Andoni Iraola to Leeds looked extremely possible once upon a time. The Yorkshire outfit had just sacked Jesse Marsch and Iraola’s work at Rayo Vallecano garnered him plenty of admirers at Elland Road. The promising Spanish coach thought better of a relegation scrap without a transfer window to bring in some of his players and what a call that was.

Iraola, as we all know, is now at Bournemouth and doing a fantastic job. Real Madrid could reportedly be his next club, while Spurs are also big fans and could go all out when (not if) Ange Postecoglou leaves. For his sins.

Leeds ended up bringing in another Spaniard, Javi Gracia, before stooping to the lowest of the low by playing the Sam Allardyce card in big 2023.

Arne Slot to Tottenham Hotspur
My word, will Slot be thankful this one never happened. Spurs, meanwhile, will be fuming they Spursed another thing up.

After his Leeds rejection, Slot became a Spurs target, but the Londoners could not agree a compensation package with Feyenoord and instead appointed Postecoglou. It quickly looked like a good decision bringing in Big Ange but as time has ticked on, we now know Daniel Levy’s stinginess has cost them a Premier League title-winning coach.

Ruben Amorim to West Ham
Those aforementioned West Ham capers were a tactic disasterclass from Amorim – a sign of things to come, as it turns out.

Some reports suggest Amorim’s talks with West Ham in April 2024 were a ploy to pressure Liverpool by proving he had other options on the table, though this has never been confirmed. Amorim did confirm the negotiations with the Hammers though, and apologised to the Sporting fanbase for the timing and publicity, which he deemed “disrespectful”.

While Amorim has struggled in the Premier League, we feel like this was more of a bullet dodged on his part, with West Ham proving to be a hot and steamy shambles this season. Furthermore, he would not have got the Man United job, which, for all the criticism, is a bloody good gig.

The Hammers replaced David Moyes with Julen Lopetegui – not Amorim – but he only lasted until January, being replaced by Graham Potter. The ex-Chelsea boss has taken them from 14th to 17th with three wins from 14 in the league.

Paulo Fonseca to Newcastle United
Before appointing Eddie Howe in November 2021, Newcastle considered bringing in Paulo Fonseca, who is currently serving an eight-month domestic ban after an aggressive confrontation with a Ligue 1 referee and recently oversaw Lyon’s incredible capitulation at Manchester United in the Europa League.

It’s not just Fonseca’s short temper that makes this a bullet dodged but also his failure at AC Milan. The Mozambique-born 52-year-old’s best work undoubtedly came with Shakhtar Donetsk, a job that helped Roberto De Zerbi become one of the highest-rated managers in Europe.

Fonseca seems to belong at Champions League-chasing Ligue 1 sides, not a Premier League one, with Newcastle avoiding a firestorm and getting a cool-headed foundation-builder instead.

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