Arne Slot and Liverpool Women head coach have paid tribute to Matt Beard after the former Liverpool women’s manager passed away on Saturday.
Last weekend was supposed to be a cause of celebration for Liverpool. A win over Everton in the Merseyside derby kept their 100 per cent winning record intact, but then came the devastating news of Matt Beard’s passing.
Beard won back-to-back Women’s Super League titles with Liverpool in 2013 and 2014 and won the Championship during his second spell at the club in 2022. He left his position as the Liverpool Women’s manager in February this year and took over at Burnley in June before resigning less than a month ago.
Arne Slot, the manager of the men’s first team, has paid tribute to Beard, who he met after taking charge of Liverpool last year.
He said: “I met him [Matt Beard] last season and yeah he not only did great things for this football club for the women’s team, back to back league titles came back to the women’s team when they were playing one division below. So that tells you how much probably he loved the club as well.
“So, yeah, if you hear a thing like this, I think 47 if I’m correct, that’s my age as well at the moment, then devastated to hear I think in these moments, the football world always shows itself at its best, and that’s also what happens.”
Some things are bigger than football and the Dutchman has declared that who Beard was as a person is more important than his managerial achievements. However, these are still important and Beard had them in abundance.
“What happened now is not only that he gets all the respects he deserves here at Liverpool, but I think all around the women’s football and everyone that worked with him liked him so much, and that’s probably even a more important legacy to leave behind than the trophies you win, that the person you are is always more important than what you’ve won.
“But in his situation, both things were combined – so successful as a manager and a great human being.
“It’s also his family, and that’s going through such a hard time at the moment, and as I’ve experienced being here now for one and a half year, if people are going through difficult periods, the Liverpool fans, we as a team, always want to be there for for for the people that go through such a difficult time, and that’s now the situation for his wife and his three children.”
The Reds will hold a minute’s silence at Anfield before Tuesday night’s clash with Southampton in the Carabao Cup. The players taking part in the third round fixture will wear black armbands as a mark of respect also. And speaking ahead of that game, Slot said the club will support Beard’s loved ones in any way they can as he talked up the job performed by the coach during his time on Merseyside.
Liverpool Women head coach Gareth Taylor has shared also a personal tribute to Matt Beard
Taylor and his squad came together at AXA Melwood Training Centre on Monday and held a minute’s silence as a mark of respect for Beard.
Players and staff observed a minute’s silence at the AXA Melwood Training Centre this morning, following the sad passing of former manager Matt Beard ?? pic.twitter.com/oGg89rLfuv
— Liverpool FC Women (@LiverpoolFCW) September 22, 2025
Liverpool Women has been mourning Beard’s passing since Saturday, with Sunday’s Women’s Super League fixture against Aston Villa postponed as a result.
Taylor said via the club’s official website: “It’s a huge loss and he will leave a big void. We have lost Matt far too young. But where we can take some solace is by thinking of the huge impact he managed to have on so many people across his 47 years, a real legacy and he packed in more than a lot of people who are fortunate to be around until their old age.”
Taylor went on to reveal that Beard had phoned him on a number of occasions since he became Liverpool’s new head coach.
He said: “We’d already had a decent relationship, he was a coach that I came up against over the last four or five years – he was at various clubs; Bristol, West Ham and obviously Liverpool. I loved my duels on the sidelines with him.
“We both got animated… most of the time him more so than me! But what a guy, you never fell out with him. One of us would hold our hands up and say, ‘I got it wrong.’ And that’s what you want.
“I have to say, he’s the most enjoyable to work with – in the sense of coming up against – in my time in the women’s game. The legacy he has left, as a person firstly, because of the impression he left on the people he worked with at all of his clubs, particularly here at Liverpool. And then obviously his record as a gaffer.
“He took Liverpool to the real heights of the game. The most decorated women’s manager for Liverpool and I think that is only half of the story. The other half is the void he will leave as a person.”
It has been a difficult year for those who hold Liverpool close to their hearts. Despite plenty of on-field success, there have been tears shed for Beard, as well as Diogo Jota. They may be gone, but they will not be forgotten.
