Slot gets player exit demand on first official day as Liverpool boss

Arne Slot’s first official day as Liverpool manager began with one of his players demanding to leave the club.

Young defender Sepp van den Berg has urged the Reds to arrange a permanent exit for him, accusing the club of ‘hindering’ his future.

The 22-year-old signed for Liverpool in 2019 from Dutch side PEC Zwolle, but he has made just four first-team appearances since then.

Van den Berg has spent much of his spell with the Premier League giants out on loan, most recently at Bundesliga side Mainz where he was a regular player.

And it appears he is ready to leave Anfield for more consistent first-team action, with new boss Slot potentially set to oversee one of his first squad departures as Reds manager.

Speaking to De Telegraaf, Van den Berg admitted he feels it’s time to leave and suggested the club had gone back on previous promises over his game time.

“I knew that I couldn’t get from PEC Zwolle [straight] to Liverpool’s first team,” he said. “I could have been at Liverpool for one or two more years, but I wanted to play with all my might.

“I demanded to be [loaned] out. Every time, because I felt that I was getting better and better. I also made great strides physically. Just the whole [first] season. On the one hand, that was great.

“Yes, how does that work, you’re 17, 18-years-old, you’re central to the defence in training against the starting XI, you have to build up and then Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mo Salah come running towards you. It was tough, but I enjoyed it. But in all honesty, I wasn’t looked after anymore.

“I also felt ‘ready’ [in 2021]. I had a good conversation with the management. He said he had received good reports. I understood that I wasn’t going to play [Virgil] Van Dijk, [Joel] Matip or [Ibrahima] Konate out [the team]. But I thought I could be right behind it. When I didn’t get a chance again, I said, ‘Figure it out, I want to leave.’

“You [Liverpool] didn’t exude confidence in me all this time, but you do want to hinder my future. I want to keep playing every week and develop myself further.

“In Germany, I enjoy [Borussia] Dortmund away with 70,000 people, Bayern Munich away against Harry Kane, Stuttgart, [RB] Leipzig, [Bayer] Leverkusen, against clubs like that I am challenged every week.”

As reported by The Athletic’s James Pearce, Liverpool value Van den Berg at around £20million, with Mainz not holding an option to buy in their loan deal.

The Dutch defender could therefore be one of of the Reds’ first exits of the summer, with Slot officially starting his role as head coach on Saturday.

He arrives at Anfield to replace Jurgen Klopp off the back of his stint at Feyenoord where he won the Eredivisie and KNVB Cup.

Slot is yet to be officially unveiled by Liverpool but he sill soon be in action in the dugout for pre-season, which includes a trip to the United States.