Stephen Bunting has now revealed what Michael van Gerwen has privately told him about new Liverpool manager Arne Slot.
Stephen Bunting is best known to many for being one of the best darts players on the planet.
Currently ranked 16th in the PDC order of merit, the 39-year-old has also gained a mass following due to his presence on social media.
‘The Bullet’ recently shared his love of collecting retro football stickers and cards but that isn’t his only obsession. Bunting is a huge fan of Liverpool and when they first won the Premier League title in 2020, he described the moment as ‘special’.
The Reds have recently hired Arne Slot as their new manager, with the Dutchman replacing the enigmatic Jurgen Klopp, who enjoyed a successful nine-year stay at Anfield.
Leaning on Slot’s heritage, Bunting asked Michael van Gerwen and some of the other Dutch darts players to give their verdict on the 45-year-old.
Stephen Bunting shares what Michael van Gerwen told him about Arne Slot
Van Gerwen is well placed to give his opinion as the Green Machine supports PSV Eindhoven and will have taken notice of Slot at Feyenoord in the Eredivisie.
Speaking on the Weekly Dartscast, Bunting has been told that the Dutch tactician plays a similar brand of football to Klopp and has only heard positive reviews so far.
“Arne Slot looks like he plays a similar style of football,” Bunting said. “I’ve spoken to Michael van Gerwen and some of the other Dutch players about Arne Slot because I don’t watch the Eredivisie and they all speak positively about him.”
Stephen Bunting shares comparisons to Liverpool
As everyone knows, Liverpool had to wait 30 years to win a league title, breaking that curse in 2020 to lift the Premier League.
In darts, Bunting has played out a similar narrative as it took him a decade after entering the PDC to win his first televised title, beating van Gerwen in the Masters final in February.
This was the first time he’d reached a televised PDC final since the 2014 Sydney Darts Masters and although the pressure was on, he overcame that by beating one of the greatest players of all time.
Bunting’s victory in that tournament was similar to the Reds winning the Premier League for the first time; a huge weight would have been lifted and in Liverpool’s case, it allowed them to have many more years of success.
The Liverpool-born arrowsmith will hope a similar narrative transpires in the darting world as he aims to win one of the major PDC titles in the coming years.