Liverpool confirmed Arne Slot as their new manager only a day after Jurgen Klopp managed his final game for the club. Slot, who earned his reputation with his heroics at Eredivisie side Feyenoord, is going to become the latest Dutchman to coach in the Premier League.
If things go his way, then Erik ten Hag could get some ‘local’ competition from his fellow Dutch manager. There are still questions around Ten Hag’s future at Manchester United. A lot might hinge on the Red Devils potentially winnig the FA Cup final over a hungover Manchester City side to sway things in the Dutchman’s favor.
Slot is going to join an elusive class of Netherlands managers to take helm of a Premier League club. Interestingly, Dutch coaches haven’t actually been able to guide any Premier League side to major trophies, including the likes of Louis van Gaal and Ronald Koeman. Despite that, there is already a lot of fans going gaga over the potential battle between Ten Hag and Slot next season.
In fact, the impending ‘war’ between the Manchester United and Liverpool coaches is being compared to that which happened on the hit TV show Breaking Bad. For those unknowing, Breaking Bad is an extremely popular TV show about a teacher (Walter White) who turns into a meth dealer and tries to hide his ‘other job’ from his family. However, he finds a lot of difficulty doing so from his brother in law Hank Schrader – who is a DEA (Drug Enforcement Admistration) Agent.
Slot and Ten Hag are both bald, which give fans enough reason to compare them to Walter and Hank. The Manchester United boss for one, has been repeatedly likened to Walter White ever since he took up the job in England. But now, some have noticed the eerie similarity between Slot’s appearance to that of Breaking Bad’s Hank.
As a result, it has created the ideal circumstances for comparing the upcoming Ten Hag vs Slot battle to the ‘war’ that happened between Walter White and Hank in Breaking Bad. The tensions soared between the characters on the TV show after Hank discovered White’s meth-dealing business and started getting all tense around him.
Hence, fans are using the fight sequences between the Breaking Bad characters to reflect about how things might get out of control when Ten Hag and Slot meet next season. The Manchester United and Liverpool rivalry is an extremely heated one, and there is a feeling that the two Dutch coaches can get a little feisty when butting heads against one another – like Walter and Hank.
Some Manchester United fans are even creating memes in advanced on if they’re able to defeat Slot’s Liverpool by a big margin next season. They’re likening Arne’s potential reaction to be similar to what Hank’s was when he realized that Walter White was indeed a criminal on the show.
Ten Hag and Slot are well aware of how it feels to face each other. When Erik was the manager of Ajax, he came up against Arne’s AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord side. Ten Hag managed to win two games out of four against Slot, losing the remaining two. That means the head-to-head record between the Dutch duo is tied on two wins apiece heading into their potential war in the Premier League.
For that to happen, of course, Ten Hag needs to stay in the job next season. But the dream of many perpetually online fans is for him to stay and reignite his rivalry with the Liverpool coach. That is because it only gives them fuel to create even more Breaking Bad inspired memes and reshape the images of these two Dutch managers as Premier League’s Walter White and Hank Schrader.