Revealed: The heartwarming secret side of Arne Slot uncovered for the first time, new twist in Harvey Elliott's future, the truth about Rio Ngumoha's wage increase and the next wonderkid on Reds' radar

Arne Slot is a football coach that has been labelled as a modern distillation of his illustrious compatriots Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff, to name just two – but he is also a human being and a family man.

Many episodes highlight this, even from his short time at Liverpool so far, but a new book by his old friend and journalist Mikos Gouka delves deeper into this subject. In Slot, The New Era , translated into English and published today, we get the best insight yet into the Dutchman.

Gouka, who has been quoted in this column before, has written a page-turner of a read that becomes a must-have for Liverpool supporters and football fans in general. It makes the appreciation of Slot sky-rocket, even from its already substantial level.

Packed with anecdotes and interesting nuggets of information, the most enlightening chapter is the one about Slot as a family man. It starts with a story about when he took his daughter, Isa, to a Jonna Fraser concert in Amsterdam. Fraser, for the uninitiated, is a Dutch-born rapper.

Slot would be worried sick about Isa, a teenager making the hour-long journey back to their home in the city of Zwolle from the capital in the dark. So rather than sit at home anxious about this, he would drive her there and wait in the car through the entire performance.

Many parents would do the same but the way Slot differs is, instead of sitting normally and scrolling his phone or reading a book while waiting, the then-Feyenoord boss would hunch over the wheel to avoid being spotted by locals, who would most probably be Ajax fans.

As Gouka details, Slot felt like his kids were safer at concerts than football matches due to fan violence and he once said: ‘I wish we could turn the clock back to the way we treated one another 15 or 20 years ago. Sadly that is not possible.

‘We all share responsibility for making the world a nicer place and people look to football to set an example.’

What the boss did agree to is grant his son, Joep, his ultimate wish before leaving Feyenoord. The teenager, often spotted at Anfield peering up at the Kop, is a huge football fan and wanted the true experience of De Kuip, so Slot allowed him to sit up with the Ultras.

Another tale in the book tells of when the Dutchman was forced to watch a Feyenoord game from his bed due to a bad cough. Struggling for goals, Isa and Joep demanded their father to sub on Yankuba Minteh, now at Brighton.

Father Slot agreed, Minteh scored two and they won 2-0. Clearly, the genes of having a wise footballing brain run in the family, perhaps stemming from their grandfather Arend who was a coach at the local team in the Slot hometown of Bergentheim.

In that sleepy old village, the locals love Slot but do not think he is the best son of their community – instead, that is reserved for those who went to fight in wars, or those who are doctors or teachers now, giving back.

Slot’s father is on the phone to the Liverpool boss most days critiquing his tactics. Even if the Reds had won a game, the head coach will receive a call from his old man asking why he waited so long to make a substitution, for example.

But the Slot family, says Gouko, are so proud of him – though they miss their son, father and husband now he is living in north-west England. His father will go to the local shop ‘five times a day’ pretending to forget something.

Slot with Yankuba Minteh (centre), who was on loan at Feyenoord from Newcastle, and now plays for Brighton

Slot the player (right) at PEC Zwolle in 2013, facing Groiningen centre back Virgil van Dijk (left), his future Liverpool captain

Secretly, it is said, it is so he gets another chance to talk about his son.

These are just some stories from a book that is rich in informative value, with chapters on the time he was written off as a player, sacked in a 30-second meeting at AZ Alkmaar and had to lie down in a bus aisle to avoid missiles from Marseille fans.

It details his adoration for Pep Guardiola, Lionel Messi and the Argentinian school of footballing thought, plus how he would make his PEC Zwolle Under 14s side watch two-hour videos of Barcelona midfielders… or how he took inspiration (in a good way) from Lance Armstrong.

A must-read for any football fan wanting to know more about the latest manager to take our league by storm.

Rio’s real wage revealed

Happy birthday to Rio Ngumoha, who turns 17 tomorrow – and is set to be rewarded with his first professional contract at Liverpool.

Ngumoha has been in the spotlight this week after his heroic last-minute winner at Newcastle on Monday and there were some suggestions that Liverpool broke their payment structure to sign the 16-year-old this time last year from Chelsea.

To be clear, any player signed at that age automatically goes on to a scholar’s contract, and Confidential understands that any notion Liverpool broke strategy to sign Ngumoha is 100 per cent false. The club are understood to be keen that their stars of the future are motivated by the pathway and opportunities at that age, not money.

A year on, though, Ngumoha is in line for his first professional contract. Again, though, the Premier League champions will not be ripping up any financial policies they have about players of this age, even though many people in the building believe he is their best academy asset for years.

Rio Ngumoha IS getting a pay rise - just not as much as has been rumoured

At the moment, it is said that Ngumoha is paid roughly £300 a week. When he signs his first professional contract in the coming days or weeks, that will rise – but he still will be earning a modest wage that insiders say could be worth around £1,000 a week.

Remember that academy director Alex Inglethorpe introduced a wage cap of just over £50,000 a year as well as banning cars with an engine above 1.3litres.

Something to bear in mind for Ngumoha, who can tomorrow legally take driving lessons. After sealing three points for Liverpool on Tyneside, how are his three-point turns?

Roma close in on Tsimikas

Italian giants Roma believe they have the green light on personal terms to sign Liverpool left back Kostas Tsimikas, according to sources in Italy – but the Premier League champions would still prefer a sale than loan out the Greek full back.

Saying that, though, it is understood the longer the saga goes on, the more likely the Reds are to compromise and agree to a temporary move to the Eternal City.

Roma are also following Nazinho of Cercle Brugge but their preferred candidate is Tsimikas. Marseille and Olympiacos have also posted an interest in the Greek – but none have so far been willing to cough up money to buy the 29-year-old on a permanent deal.

…and Elliott likely to stay

Harvey Elliott is more likely to stay than leave Liverpool this summer.

That may not be a huge surprise given how little time there is left of this transfer window, but it would have been a shock a month or so ago when it looked certain that the England Under 21 hero would seek pastures new.

Harvey Elliott is set to stay at Liverpool despite mass interest in signing the 22-year-old this summer

Many clubs have been keen, such as RB Leipzig, Crystal Palace and Brighton – but none have put any official approaches or monetary offers on the table for the 22-year-old who Liverpool value at north of £40million.

Arne Slot also knows his attacking depth is a bit on the light side so Elliott could be needed.

Spanish midfielder Stefan Bajcetic is also likely to stay. The 20-year-old, who spent last year on loans to RB Salzburg and Las Palmas, is getting closer to fitness after missing pre-season and his talents were part of the reason Tyler Morton was allowed to leave for Lyon.

While on that topic, the locals are loving Morton, who was man of the match in their 3-0 win over Metz at the weekend. One fan, maybe high on life, posted on X: ‘TYLER MORTON, WE HAVEN’T SEEN THIS SINCE ANDREA PIRLO 2004-2005, I SWEAR!’

McConnell to undergo medical tomorrow

Considering what we have just learned about the boss in this column, it is quite ironic that Ajax – the club that he spent so much of his managerial career fighting with despite having not even half of their budget – are now taking the stars of Slot’s B team.

Vitek Jaros has already signed a season-long loan at the Amsterdam club, playing in all three Eredivisie games so far and keeping two clean sheets along the way.

But Ajax, now managed by Slot’s former assistant Johnny Heitinga, have come back in for Liverpool midfielder James McConnell, with the youngster set to formalise a move to Holland in the next 24 hours.

As we told you last week in this column, Championship clubs Ipswich and West Brom were fighting for the 20-year-old midfielder who Slot rates extremely highly. Hull City and Austrian side Sturm Graz also posted an interest.

James McConnell is off to the Netherlands to join Slot's former rivals Ajax

Ipswich were still leading the way until Sunday evening when Ajax got on the phone to Liverpool and McConnell. By Monday afternoon, it was a done deal. It is understood the medical will take place tomorrow and Newcastle-born McConnell will complete the move before the weekend.

He backs himself to play regularly at the Johan Cruyff Arena and Heitinga, who he knows well from training with the first team last year, is a capable pair of hands for his first loan move. Liverpool have high hopes.

ASK CONFIDENTIAL: will Liverpool sign Guehi and Isak? (various)

I could’ve predicted this would be the demand… and so many of you asked that I will blend 50 or so questions into one.

Liverpool remain in talks to sign Marc Guehi, as revealed by Daily Mail Sport on Tuesday. They have held further discussions with Crystal Palace this week and are prepared to pay around £30m, maybe slightly more, to get a deal done.

But it all depends on Steve Parish, the Eagles chairman. Will he agree to that? One of the big factors will be whether Palace can buy a replacement or not in time and, as has been reported, they are after a number of centre backs.

Personal terms would not be an issue if the Palace captain gets the green light to leave. He wants the move whether it is now or when his contract expires next summer (or even January). So I am afraid it is a waiting game.

The same can be said of Alexander Isak. Not what you want to hear, I know, but it is the truth and it is the same story as this time a fortnight ago. When and if – a bigger ‘if’ with every passing day – they sign a forward or two, Isak should be allowed to leave.

Liverpool are waiting on Crystal Palace signing a replacement before they can seal a deal for Marc Guehi

Injury updates

As we revealed in this column last week, Jeremie Frimpong is injured – but Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez will be in with a chance of playing more minutes on Sunday. Slot may well stick with Dominik Szoboszlai at right back, though.

Meanwhile, Alexis Mac Allister is hoping to be available for the visit of Arsenal. The Argentine has not played a single minute alongside Ryan Gravenberch this season so it would be a big boost to have Liverpool’s main title-winning midfield back together if Mac Allister makes it.

I’ve seen that before!

Once the dust had settled and heart rate come back down after Ngumoha’s last-gasp goal on Monday, I thought to myself: I’ve seen that before.

In the 37C heat of Tokyo, Liverpool were working on that exact move with assistant manager Sipke Hulshoff (there is also a very interesting chapter on him in the aforementioned book).

Get it out wide using one-touch football in triangle shapes, the No 10 (Florian Wirtz in this drill) makes a late run into the box and the winger has a choice of finding him or the man at the back post.

Of the 11 Reds on the pitch, 10 of them touched the ball in the move for the goal. The outlier? Dominik Szoboszlai, who created it with a sublime dummy that looks better every time you see it.

One to watch: Can Uzun

I was speaking to someone close to Eintracht Frankfurt this week for some background information on what Hugo Ekitike is like as a person and the verdict was: calm, relaxed, funny, hard-working… the usual buzzwords.

When I asked if he was being missed at Eintracht, though, the answer was a negative one. They have forgotten about him already and have a new starlet, Turkish forward Can Uzun, 19, who scored at the weekend.

Our friend in Germany tells us that Liverpool and other Premier League clubs are already keeping an eye on him as the next big thing to come off the Eintracht production line. One to watch!

Can Uzun is one to watch at Eintracht Frankfurt - with Liverpool among the Premier League clubs watching him

Kop Kids: Abe looking sharp

Joshua Abe, 15, is one of the players to watch from Liverpool’s academy in the next few years, according to youth football experts.

He scored England Under 16s' only goal of the game in a 2-1 defeat against Italy on Tuesday with former Liverpool coach Barry Lewtas the manager. The goal saw him cut in from the right, beat a man and curl a left-footed shot into the far top corner.

Scouts have only good things to say about Abe and Liverpool will try to tie him down to a contract when his youth deal expires. Abe, who supports Arsenal, has been at the club since the age of eight.

It was another dismal defeat for Rob Page’s Under 21s this week, though. They lost 3-2 to Burnley on Monday and travel to Stoke tomorrow night.