-
Beth Lindop
Multiple Authors
Andoni Iraola took a pen between his fingers and began to gesticulate wildly. The year was 2020, and the former Athletic Club defender — who was the manager of Spanish second-tier club CD Mirandés at the time — was one of the keynote speakers for a webinar discussing the demands of elite-level coaching.
“Football is not black and white,” he explained with a smile. “Everything is gray and in the end, we have to try to establish some guidelines. But we cannot control everything.”
Fast-forward to the present day, and Iraola looks set to be charged with controlling the fortunes of a soccer behemoth as Liverpool close on a deal to appoint him as their new head coach. After a season in which he led AFC Bournemouth to their first European campaign with a sixth-placed Premier League finish, the 43-year-old is now the leading contender to replace Arne Slot, who was relieved of his duties last weekend after two vastly different seasons at Anfield.
Despite winning the title at the first time of asking in 2024-25, after stepping into the shoes of the legendary Jurgen Klopp, Slot’s turbulent sophomore campaign on Merseyside ultimately convinced the Liverpool hierarchy of the need for change in the dugout. Sources told ESPN that sporting director Richard Hughes informed Slot of the decision on Saturday morning, less than two hours before the official club announcement was posted online.
And while Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) had been determined to stand by Slot throughout the unprecedented trials and tribulations of last season, the end of this campaign offered the chance for a more holistic assessment of the Dutchman’s performance. After Liverpool limped over the line to secure UEFA Champions League qualification on the final day — picking up just two points from their last four league games — Hughes and FSG conceded that Slot’s departure was in the best interests of all parties, with the club aiming to pivot to a more aggressive, front-footed brand of soccer.
Step forward Iraola, whose high-octane philosophy helped take Bournemouth from relegation contenders to European competitors during his three seasons at the Vitality Stadium. His impressive body of work on the south coast means he has been the subject of interest from within the Premier League and abroad since he announced in April that he would be leaving Bournemouth at the end of the season.
Sources told ESPN that Iraola quickly became the front-runner to replace Slot, but that does not guarantee he will excel at Liverpool. After all, Slot knows better than anyone how ephemeral success can be, having himself gone from hero to zero in less than a year.
But where did it all go so wrong for the Dutchman? And what must Iraola do to ensure he avoids a similar fate at Anfield?
1:07
Robson: Big contracts created problems for Slot at Liverpool
Cup final disappointment began worrying trend
The beginning of the end for Slot can perhaps be traced back to March 2025, when his Liverpool team lost out to Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final. Just a few days after being knocked out of the Champions League round of 16 on penalties by eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool were a comfortable second best at Wembley as they struggled to match Newcastle’s desire and intensity in a 2-1 defeat.
“This game went exactly the way they wanted it to be; a fight with a lot of duels and a lot of duels through the air,” Slot said in his postmatch news conference. “And if we play 10 times a game of football through the air against them, they win it probably nine times because they are a stronger team through the air than us.”
It was a typically frank assessment from the 47-year-old, who increasingly came under fire for his unerring honesty during his time at Liverpool. Having proven himself to be so adept at bending games to his will during his first seven months in charge, his inability to do so against Newcastle marked the start of a worrying trend, whereby he repeatedly lamented the Reds’ struggles against low blocks, long balls and set pieces.
Of course, just a month after the cup final disappointment, Slot helped to deliver one of Anfield’s greatest-ever days as Liverpool clinched the Premier League title against Tottenham Hotspur — the first time they had done so in front of fans for 35 years. At that point, the Dutchman looked poised to build a dynasty, a feeling that was only compounded by Liverpool’s subsequent £446 million summer spending spree.
Yet the fact that more than a quarter of that outlay was dedicated to the £125 million signing of Alexander Isak from Newcastle proved problematic, as the striker struggled for fitness in his first few months at Anfield before sustaining a fibula fracture in December. His extensive injury woes meant he and Liverpool’s two other marquee signings (worth a combined £169 million in transfer fees) — midfielder Florian Wirtz and striker Hugo Ekitike, whose own season was ended when he ruptured his Achilles tendon in April — shared the pitch for only 119 minutes across the course of the whole campaign.
Elsewhere, promising teenage center back Giovanni Leoni suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury on his debut against Southampton in September, while right back Jeremie Frimpong suffered five separate muscle injuries throughout the season. With several new signings failing to hit the ground running, Slot was unable to offset the departures of key personnel, including right back Trent Alexander-Arnold and forward Luis Díaz, who joined Real Madrid and Bayern Munich respectively in the summer of 2025.
No absence, however, was more keenly felt than that of Diogo Jota, who died in a car crash alongside his brother, André Silva, last July. While Liverpool have always been emphatic in their stance that Jota’s death should not be used as an excuse for last season’s poor form, the impact of the tragedy was irrefutable.
Last month, left back Andy Robertson — who will leave the club on a free transfer this summer — admitted that “football didn’t matter” in the wake of his teammate’s passing, with grief counselors invited into the club’s AXA Training Centre in the early weeks of the season.
Sources told ESPN that the statesmanlike manner in which Slot led the club through that impossibly difficult period earned him enormous respect from the Liverpool hierarchy and contributed to the feeling he should be allowed some grace amid the Reds’ disappointing form on the pitch. But that grace didn’t last long.
1:16
Marcotti: Liverpool need to explain Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea appointment
Slot’s exit became “inevitable”
Ultimately, Liverpool’s desire to be patient with Slot was not limitless, and while publicly the club’s backing of the Dutchman never wavered during the season, their faith was tested following a 4-1 defeat to PSV Eindhoven in November 2025.
It was a bruising result which came amid a dismal run of nine losses in 12 games, with boos raining down from the Anfield crowd at full-time. One source told ESPN that the defeat was a “breaking point moment” among some within the club. While it was not a defeat that confirmed Slot’s fate, the scoreline raised concerns that had not previously surfaced during the previous poor results and performances going into that game.
Slot was able to stop the rot by overseeing a run of 13 unbeaten games in all competitions, but the fact that sequence contained draws against the likes of Sunderland, Fulham and Leeds United (twice) dampened the sense of any real progress. Slot’s authority in that period was also undermined by star forward Mohamed Salah, who publicly accused the club of throwing him “under the bus” after he was dropped for three successive games in November and December.
The Egypt international’s incendiary postmatch interview at Elland Road laid bare the extent of the disintegration of his relationship with Slot and while the pair were able to strike on an uneasy truce, Salah announced in March that he would leave the club on a free transfer (a year before his contract expired). Then, last month, the star forward appeared to reignite their feud again when he called for a return to “heavy metal football” in a controversial social media post.
Salah’s post was liked by 12 members of the first-team squad and one source in the Netherlands told ESPN the feeling in Slot’s homeland was that he had lost the Liverpool dressing room. Another source added that, while Slot had not entirely lost the support of his players, some figures in the dressing room grown disillusioned with his management amid a barrage of external criticism.
The narrative on social media that Slot gave his squad too much time off — partly fueled by posts of players on holiday at various points throughout the season — has been dismissed by those inside Anfield, with the team’s training schedule largely remaining the same as in the previous season, when Liverpool comfortably won the title.
There is also a sense that talk about Slot’s reluctance to turn to young players has been overplayed, although sources said there was frustration throughout his tenure over his perceived reluctance to engage with the academy.
Fundamentally, the need for fresh impetus became more apparent over the course of a campaign that witnessed the Reds repeatedly fall into the same traps. It increasingly seemed like Slot was a coach who excelled when certain variables were working in his favor, but who was unable to turn the tide when the chips were down.
In an interview with Sky Sports last month, the Dutchman admitted it was “the first season that [he’d] experienced a lot of setbacks and disappointments” and sources told ESPN the club have recognized that different challenges require different managerial skill sets.
The conclusion inside the corridors of power at Anfield was that the decision to part company with Slot felt increasingly inevitable and the failure to act swiftly this summer would have damaged preparations for next season. Still, it was fitting that Slot’s final act as Liverpool boss was to pen an open letter to the city, published in local newspaper, the Liverpool Echo, on Monday.
“The connection we share goes beyond football,” he wrote, “beyond European nights under the Anfield lights or the sound of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ being sung from The Kop. You made me feel welcome from the start and helped me on the path. That is something I cherish.”
It was a poignant message but also, perhaps, a reminder to his successor that there is so much more to being Liverpool manager than simply making calls on the touchline.
0:47
How does Andoni Iraola’s style fit with Liverpool
Iraola’s Klopp comparisons make him better fit than Xabi Alonso
Making the transition from a Premier League underdog to a European giant is often an ominous challenge for coaches, as proven by former Brighton & Hove Albion boss Graham Potter’s 206-day tenure at Chelsea and Thomas Frank’s ill-fated switch from Brentford to Tottenham Hotspur.
Iraola’s work at Bournemouth is admirable, but he has never managed in European competition and will have to adjust to a significantly more taxing workload at Anfield — the minimum of 48 games Liverpool are guaranteed to play next season will already exceed the number of matches he has previously coached in a single top-flight campaign. Still, at a time when the pool of elite managerial candidates is small, there is an opportunity for new names to mark themselves out as generational talents.
Alonso was the fan favorite choice to replace Slot before he opted to join Chelsea last month, but sources told ESPN the appetite for the legendary Liverpool midfielder to move to Anfield was not shared by the club’s decision-makers. Indeed, suggestions that Liverpool walked away from talks with Alonso because he wanted more control over operations are wide of the mark, with no approach having been made to the 44-year-old’s camp in recent months.
Iraola is viewed as having many of the ingredients required for success at the highest level, and sources said that Liverpool previously assessed him as a potential long-term replacement for Klopp four years ago, when the former Spain international was in charge at Rayo Vallecano. It’s also worth noting that it was Hughes who appointed him at Bournemouth, and the relationship between the pair will aid in facilitating a deal.
That Iraola is a self-confessed disciple of Klopp’s high-intensity soccer could also help to win over the Anfield faithful, who grew frustrated with the team’s listless displays under Slot last term.
“I have always loved gegenpressing and the German coaches,” Iraola told The Times in 2023. “The Bundesliga is where the idea players have to be complete started, because coaches were very demanding out of possession.”
Iraola’s track record of getting complete buy-in from his players could also be key to boosting the mood in a dressing room whose dynamics are continuing to evolve. Having arrived at Bournemouth at the same time as Iraola in the summer of 2023, Liverpool left back Milos Kerkez is already aware of the Spaniard’s credentials in that department.
“Last season I had to work on my defensive awareness, to not switch off,” Kerkez told The Athletic before his £40 million move to Merseyside last summer. “I now stay focused for the whole game and I believe I’m doing both pretty well this season. If you want to be a full-back with Andoni Iraola, you have to be like this.
“He is helping everyone to improve as a player and as a person. I’m really thankful he has trusted me.”
Ensuring that trust is quickly reciprocated by big names such as Isak, Wirtz and club captain Virgil van Dijk, who is now 34, will be key to ensuring Liverpool get off on the right foot next season.
Plenty to do for Iraola at Anfield
If — or, more likely, when — Iraola is officially confirmed as Liverpool boss, he will inherit a sizable to-do list.
A squad that already looked to be lacking in depth last season has been weakened further by the departures of Salah, Robertson and center back Ibrahima Konaté on free transfers. Meanwhile, speculation lingers over the future of midfielder Curtis Jones, who has just one year remaining on his contract and was the subject of interest from Inter Milan in the January window.
Whether a managerial change could tempt Jones to stay put remains to be seen, however the 25-year-old’s desire for more game time is longstanding, with one source telling ESPN that he made his frustrations known after being introduced as a substitute in stoppage time in a 1-0 victory over Leicester City in April 2025.
Like Jones, goalkeeper Alisson Becker has been linked with a move to Italy and sources have said Juventus are willing to offer the 33-year-old Brazil international a three-year contract. Liverpool, though, are keen to keep him and it is likely he will stay until his current deal expires next summer.
The expected exit of winger Federico Chiesa and Ekitike’s long-term injury means bolstering the attack is Liverpool’s priority, with RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande admired, though a deal could cost around €100 million. One source told ESPN that Slot was keen on bringing in reinforcements at right back and in defensive midfield last summer and, with neither request having been answered, Liverpool would benefit from strengthening both departments this time around.
Most of all, though, Iraola’s biggest challenge will be to unite a fractured fanbase after a season of apathy and in-fighting.
“There is a phrase that I like,” the former Spain international said during that webinar back in 2020. “It is to fight for something bigger than yourself, not only to fight for my future, because for me it goes well. But even the day that I do not have to play, I want the team to win, I want it for my partner, for the fans, for what it is.”
Installing that philosophy at Anfield will, of course, be easier said than done. But after a season that has seen believers turned into doubters, Iraola’s words will be music to Liverpool fans’ ears.
Information from ESPN’s Mark Ogden was used in this report
