Liverpool said goodbye to a legend yesterday, with Jürgen Klopp entering the pantheon of all-time greats at the club. Perhaps more surprisingly, his successor Arne Slot is also already drawing comparisons to one of Anfield's icons of the past, Bob Paisley.
How has Slot earned this comparison? In truth, it's all still to do with Klopp, and the legacy he leaves behind.
Klopp has often been likened to Bill Shankly, the forerunner to Paisley and perhaps the most renowned manager in Liverpool's storied history. The Scot lifted the Reds out of the second division, before going on to win three top flight titles and the UEFA Cup; he effectively created the club as we know it today, dragging it away from the precipice of obscurity and setting it up as a continental force.
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Prior to Shankly's second-division triumph in 1961/62, Liverpool had not won any kind of silverware since 1946/47. Clearly, Klopp did not take over in such dire straits — the Reds were not in the Championship, for one thing, and had won a trophy a little over three years prior to his arrival.
However, you can see why Klopp is painted as the modern-day equivalent. Liverpool had never won the rebranded Premier League when he took over, with that drought stretching out towards 30 years. It was in a state of increasingly permanent Champions League exile. Yet he leaves having won all of the top honors.
And significantly, he leaves behind a side set up to succeed. Having bedded in a raft of exciting young talent, as well as overseeing the development of the AXA Training Centre and the expansion of Anfield, he has given Slot every chance of achieving success of his own.
This is where the Paisley comparisons come in. Shankly's long-time assistant, he stepped in to replace the legendary figure, and ended up claiming his own place in Liverpool folklore.
In terms of pure trophy count, Paisley even surpassed Shankly, and still holds the record as the most decorated Liverpool manager of all time. He won the top flight six times between 1975 and 1983, while also winning three European Cups and three League Cups.
The hope now is that Slot can be the Paisley to Klopp's Shankly, the one who builds on the flawless foundations to deliver even greater success on the pitch. That might seem far-fetched — but it probably did in 1974, too.
Liverpool.com says: We don't want to pile even more pressure on Slot, who already has the unenviable task of replacing a legendary figure in Klopp. But in some ways, the Paisley comparisons should alleviate the pressure; he is not being asked to do all of the work, with many of the structures for success already in place.
Of course, invoking the name of Paisley could end up looking foolish a year or two down the line. It's arguably even harder to win now than it was then, and Slot has a big task ahead of him. But in a club always attuned to its history, there are reasons to be optimistic that Klopp's departure can be a new beginning as well as an ending.
