Gary Neville chance meeting with Arne Slot spoke volumes about Liverpool boss - 'Not told this before'

Gary Neville chance meeting with Arne Slot spoke volumes about Liverpool boss - 'Not told this before'

Gary Neville bumped into Arne Slot in Manchester and was left impressed by the Liverpool boss

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville gave his verdict on the performance from Liverpool in Arne Slot's first game as head coach (Image: Sky Sports/ Getty )

Gary Neville has explained how a chance meeting with Arne Slot taught him a great deal about the Liverpool head coach months before he guided the Reds to the Premier League title. Manchester United hero Neville chanced upon Slot in Manchester on Christmas Eve while they two were doing some last-minute shopping.

And Neville, speaking on The Overlap USA, admitted Slot's presence on rival turf and relaxed manner impressed him, with the Liverpool boss showing a different side to his personality away from the pitch.

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Slot led the Reds to the club's 20th league championship with four games to spare and less than 12 months after taking over from Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool boss.

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Neville said: "I'm not sure I've told this story before but on Christmas Eve I go out into Manchester every single year. This year I went into Selfridges for some last-minute shopping and who is in there? Arne Slot.

"I'm thinking, 'is that Arne Slot over there?' It was the second floor, the women's floor, in the shoe section. He was with his wife and daughter. I walked past him and had a couple of minutes talking to him."

He added: "It struck me straight away how humble and normal he was. But it taught me a lot about him in terms of humility, there are a lot of people who build up the role of being a professional football player or manager. They build it up as if they can't go out and do normal things.

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"Can you imagine how many people in football, on Christmas Eve - particularly the Liverpool manager - who would say they don't think it would be a good idea to go out in Manchester? They might get mithered.

"But he's out there and I thought it told me a lot about him. It's how I've always seen people who feel that they don't have to change what they are.

"But I hope he never wins another football match ever again. But the fact of the matter is, he's done a great job."

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Neville - who tipped Liverpool to finish outside the Champions League places following Slot's appointment - has since been effusive with his praise for the former Feyenoord boss.

He labelled Slot's debut Premier League season as one of the "best coaching performances" after the title was secured with a 5-1 thumping of Tottenham Hotspur in late April.

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"I think he's done an absolutely brilliant job, honestly," he said on the Gary Neville Podcast. "I think that at the start of the season - none of us can rewrite history - there weren't many Liverpool fans who thought they would win the league, let alone anybody else.

"I don't remember any pundit or analyst or journalist or fan really saying Liverpool will win the league. It was Manchester City or Arsenal. So to do what they've done is very special.

"Over a season, the coaching performance of Arne Slot is one of the best we've seen.

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"And I say that in light of whom he took over from. One of the greatest personalities and characters we've seen in the Premier League, a Liverpool icon and legend. Going into that dressing room and having to establish control and authority, but knowing he probably could never do it the same way as Jurgen Klopp.

"No one can be the same personality and character as he was. But the way in which all season he's coped with the conversations around the contracts, he's dealt with those conversations. They've then signed two, I think the most important two of those players, Van Dijk and Salah, in the last couple of weeks.

"It's also the way in which he's kept calm and composed at points where maybe it's not gone as well for them as he would have wanted."

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