Arne Slot has said Nottingham Forest’s impressive rise should not come as a complete surprise given they have spent more money on transfers than Liverpool since winning promotion to the Premier League.
The Liverpool head coach admits it is an “unbelievable accomplishment” for Nuno Espírito Santo and his team to sit third. Forest could reduce the gap on the Premier League leaders to three points with victory at the City Ground on Tuesday, albeit having played a game more.
Slot is full of praise for Forest’s improvement, and acutely aware of their threat having lost against Nuno’s side at Anfield in September, but he believes there should be some financial perspective applied. Forest have spent more than £360m since returning to the Premier League in 2022, with a net spend of about £215m. Liverpool have spent just over £300m and have a net spend of £144m in that time. On that basis, Slot rejected comparisons between Forest’s season and when his AZ Alkmaar team challenged Ajax for the Eredivisie title in the aborted 2019-20 campaign.
“I don’t think you can compare it completely as AZ has always been a club that finishes third, fourth or fifth in the league,” he said. “I don’t think Forest in the last 10 seasons ended third, fourth or fifth. What I maybe underestimated was their spending. They have spent more money than us in the last three years. You know if you spend so much money you will have good players, and then you need a manager who brings that out of them. That is what Nuno is doing great at the moment.
“It’s still an unbelievable accomplishment for them to be top three at the moment, but if you look at the amount of money they have spent it is not a complete surprise that they have a better season now than two or three years ago. That’s the difference between AZ as we didn’t spend money back then.”
Slot insisted Forest must be considered title challengers. He also claimed Manchester City remained contenders despite being 12 points adrift of the leaders after a dismal run of one win in nine Premier League matches. City have since won both their league games.
“You can never rule City out and you can never rule Pep Guardiola out,” Slot said. “They are able to win a lot of games in a row and then it all depends on the teams above them,” Slot said. “Never rule City or Pep out, especially because if everything I read every day [is true] they are bringing in a completely new team! That is an extra reason to be aware that you can never rule them out.
“But we don’t need extra motivation. We are in a great position. If we need any motivation from someone else when we are in a position like this, then these players would not deserve to wear the shirt or to play at this club. They definitely do deserve this, so we don’t need extra motivation to try as hard as we can.”
Nuno responded to Slot’s comments, saying: “I look at the player as a human being and how I can make them better. How can I make you better? Money doesn’t play football, people do. It’s not my issue, we are not concerned about the price tag of things.”
The Nottingham Forest manager also said the suggestion his side were involved in a Premier League title race was based on “ifs”, and that they could no longer be seen as a surprise package. “It was the beginning of the season, maybe it was a surprise, but it was a long time ago, many things have changed.
“We have to play the games,” Nuno said. “That’s why we always try to approach how we are going to prepare ourselves, how we are going to play the game. At the end of the game, there will be no ifs.”
Additional reporting by PA Media
