Arne Slot is set to add another trusted member to his Liverpool backroom staff this summer, with Etienne Reijnen expected to join the Dutchman at Anfield. Reijnen worked as Slot’s assistant at Feyenoord, and the move marks a reunion the manager wanted a year earlier, before Liverpool could not secure a work permit for him in 2024.
The timing matters because Liverpool are heading into a busy summer after losing their status as Premier League champions and finishing the season without a trophy. Mohamed Salah is leaving on a free transfer, Andy Robertson is also departing on a free, and there is uncertainty around Ibrahima Konate and Alisson Becker. For Slot, adding Reijnen now is one more sign that the club is trying to steady the football operation while it reshapes the squad.
Liverpool’s transfer work is being built around that reality. The club does not see anyone in the market as a like-for-like replacement for Salah and is taking a composite approach instead, with Yan Diomande of RB Leipzig emerging as the first-choice target to fill some of the attacking burden. The expectation is that Liverpool will add a wide attacking option and could also bring in another central option, with Hugo Ekitike having missed the end of the season because of an Achilles injury. That points to a window in which the club will not just replace one star, but spread the job across several signings.
There is still a contradiction inside the plan. Juventus are interested in Alisson, yet he is expected to remain a Liverpool player next season, which means the club is preparing for uncertainty without knowing whether every familiar face will actually go. The same is true of Konate, whose future is still up in the air, leaving Slot to manage both the rebuild and the stability of the spine of the team at once.
That is why Reijnen’s arrival, if completed, matters beyond the backroom. Slot wanted him at Liverpool in 2024 because he trusts him, and this summer he finally appears to get that option. With staff changes moving in step with transfer planning, Liverpool’s next phase looks less like a single rebuild than a series of linked decisions, each one shaping the next.
