It was the decision that no one at Liverpool wanted to make.
Just 12 months on from winning the Premier League title and looking formidable, nobody foresaw a scenario unfolding whereby Arne Slot would be anything but the right man for the job.
But as the weeks of strife turned to months and the months turned into a year of going backwards, Slot’s position became untenable.
Twenty defeats was the headline figure but beyond that was shoddy performances — even when the team was winning — and more importantly, fans revolting.
The Anfield loyalists are a knowledgeable and understanding crowd. After seeing the team win just two titles in 35 years, they do not expect or feel entitled to success.
So when they turn, you know it is serious.
When they booed for a third time in a matter of months, it felt like Slot — remember, the man who looked infallible a year ago — had reached the point of no return.
Arne Slot was sacked by Liverpool on Saturday just a year after winning the Premier League
Despite him leading Liverpool to glory in his debut season, it was felt Slot had lost his magic
The hierarchy were not blind or deaf. They could see the football was dull and how fans headed for an early exit. They could not miss the loud jeers and moans.
Even walking around the city, it was the talk of the town. Get in a cab in Liverpool and you would do well to last two minutes without the driver telling you he wanted Slot gone.
Players speaking out about the playing style also sent alarm bells ringing. With Salah making an indirect dig and saying he missed Jurgen Klopp’s ‘heavy metal football’, it felt like a vote of no confidence from a high-profile member of the cabinet.
Indeed, the comparisons between Slot and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer are not too ridiculous. A huge majority of support once upon a time but a string of wrong decisions and hapless public statements ultimately led to any remaining backers slowly fading away.
Andoni Iraola as Andy Burnham? OK, fine, we’ll leave this analogy there, however the Basque has done a fine job at a much more local level. More on him later.
Liverpool have got this decision spot on. Yes, it was absolutely correct to criticise Slot and call for his head at times in this wretched term but, as a title-winner, he deserved the full campaign to turn the ship around.
Leaving now allows him to exit as a title-winner. He should be remembered fondly and the timing means it could not turn more sour. If he ever was back at Anfield, the crowd should receive him warmly. Had the slide continued and wrecked next season too, his reputation might have tanked.
Sadly for Slot and the hierarchy, as the season went on it became more evident that he had lost any magic touch he had and his ability to fix things faded. Confidence in him subsequently followed suit.
Departing Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola is the overwhelming favourite to take the reins
Mohamed Salah hit out at Slot publicly with a bombshell statement near the end of the season
It felt like high-profile staffers wanted him to succeed and were upset by how things unfolded, though there was an acceptance this week that change was needed and Slot was no longer the man to lead a rebuild which figures think is bigger than they might have forecasted.
The main problem was a failure to learn from previous mistakes. The issues that troubled Liverpool in September were still commonplace in May. After starting the season with five wins in a row, they dropped points in 22 of the next 33 games.
People would say that Liverpool were not a ‘sacking club’ but this behemoth of English football is also not a club for such feeble performances.
Losing twice to Manchester United and three times to Manchester City were low points but so too were borefests against relegation-threatened teams such as Burnley, Leeds and Nottingham Forest.
After spending £446million last summer, this was simply not good enough. Yes, there were a number of mitigating circumstances but it felt like Slot would refer to excuses rather than offer a way he would solve the problems.
The effect of grief when Diogo Jota passed away last July was immeasurable and the players all dealt with that in different ways. How hard it must have been to be Slot as the leader as the squad understandably could not think straight, both in training and matches.
Many of them are in their mid-20s and might not have experienced death before, certainly not of a friend of the same age.
Then there were injuries, such as star striker £125m Alexander Isak missing the bulk of the campaign and his back-up, the impressive Hugo Ekitike, rupturing his Achilles. Fellow new boys struggled to settle in and Salah’s form fell off a cliff.
But Slot still had the bulk of his title-winning team available for most of the season and couldn’t get a tune out of them. Teams had clearly worked out how to play against them and Slot did not have the answers to evolve.
Nevertheless, the word from above all season was one of support: despite all the woe, Slot was still the man.
As recently as this week, that message was the same and the club had held talks with his former Feyenoord assistant Etienne Reijnen, which was viewed as an unofficial statement that they were backing him.
That all changed this week when, after an end-of-season review, Liverpool decided it was best to move forward without Slot.
He was only informed of said news shortly before it became a matter of public knowledge.
Slot will be remembered for winning Liverpool’s second Premier League title – but he had to go
He was surprised at the news having been given support in the last week but is not said to be licking his wounds. Instead, he leaves with pride at what he accomplished at the club.
Players were also said to be shocked.
Ajax wanted to hire him earlier this year but he is not desperate to jump straight back into a new job. If the right opportunity does arise, though, Slot might listen.
Which brings us on to the question you are all begging to have answered: who next?
Iraola is the front-runner and the former Bournemouth boss is aware of their interest.
Iraola has been offered the Crystal Palace job and the Eagles were hoping for an answer this weekend. He also held talks with two clubs in London in recent days — AC Milan and Bayer Leverkusen — in what was a busy period in which he also met new Bournemouth boss Marco Rose for a handover.
Iraola knew he was in the thoughts of Liverpool. The manager knows Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes well after the Scot hired him at Bournemouth.
He has done a fine job on the south coast, taking them to Europe for the first time in their history and only finishing three points off the Champions League spots.
All this came after the Cherries lost the bulk of their team this year: Milos Kerkez, Ilya Zabarnyi, Dean Huijsen and Dango Ouattara all departed last summer, while star man Antoine Semenyo left in January.
To get better after that only underlined the stellar job Iraola was doing. His high-octane football, on and off the ball, won plaudits around the game.
His former club, Rayo Vallecano, have gone from strength to strength in the last five years, culminating in Iraola’s former No 2 Iñigo Perez taking them to the Conference League final. Perez, who is poised to join Villarreal, was blocked from following Iraola to England due to a failed work permit.
Speaking to Daily Mail Sport earlier this year, Bournemouth’s Justin Kluivert told us: ‘Everyone always says, “Bournemouth, yeah, very tough team to play against”. But none of this is luck, we are beating these teams because we are the better side. We are a special team. I have a good feeling we can continue to show something beautiful this year.
‘In the summer, we lost very important players. So it was like, “OK, how is this season going to be?”. But from the first moment we just really believed in the team we had, believed in the coach with no doubts. You see it now… lovely.
Iraola’s high-octane football, both on and off the ball, has won plaudits around the game
‘The manager is a foreigner, he came here and it is not easy for coaches to come to England and think they can change the game. But he is doing that. And doing a great job. I played against his previous club and loved how they played – the intention, the pressing.
‘He had a rough start with a lot of losses but the club believed in him, we believed in him – and that is paying off now. He has improved my game significantly… is that the right word? He played me in a different role so I thank Andoni for that… he had a good vision!’
Iraola is not the only contender. Stuttgart’s Sebastian Hoeness and Lens’s Pierre Sage — both overachievers who have transformed their sides from relegation fodder to Champions League teams.
Liverpool will take the coming days to ponder who their main choice is but want to act quickly.
Whoever it is, they must slot in quickly — as the former man did — and transform a failing team.
Two years after Slot replaced Klopp, it feels like they are back to square one.
