The fall of Arne Slot & the rise of Andoni Iraola: What next for Liverpool Football Club? | OneFootball

Andoni Iraola will lead out Liverpool Football Club going into the 2026/27 pre-season.

The decision was made, much to his predecessor’s surprise, that Arne Slot would be handed his marching orders ahead of the summer transfer window.

The Merseysiders had finished a disappointing fifth in the Premier League, only just qualifying for Champions League football via a technicality.

Arne Slot buckled under the pressure as the season spiralled

The Dutchman, to be fair, had won the league title at a canter, at the first time of asking, in his debut campaign.

But the season that followed was anything but smooth sailing, with eight straight wins at the start (across all competitions) followed by eight defeats in the next 11 in all competitions.

It will have been no surprise to anyone who regularly checks football odds that Slot’s name was high up the list in the markets for the next manager to lose his job.

It’s a cut-throat game where success is quickly forgotten when subsequent results are underwhelming. That’s before taking into consideration the widespread number of changes in the squad, including the tragic passing of one of the team’s most beloved players in Diogo Jota.

Mitigating factors

It would be remiss of us to suggest that Arne Slot was entirely at fault for all that transpired in 2025/26.

It’s difficult, for starters, for manager and players to escape the long shadow of Jota’s tragic passing. Such is the ongoing impact, that we’re still seeing Liverpool players – and quite understandably, we want to emphasise – bring up their beloved former teammate and the mental/emotional toll his death took on them.

Then we have to consider the tools the former Liverpool boss was handed ahead of the campaign. No one can complain about the injection of immediate quality between Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike. Likewise, Milos Kerkez increasingly found his path within the side while Jeremie Frimpong struggled with injuries and finding his identity in Slot’s team.

But where on earth were the wingers? Liverpool fans were told the club was reluctant to replace Luis Diaz for fear of blocking Rio Ngumoha’s pathway. Yet Cody Gakpo was frequently relied upon, while the teenager sat observing on the bench.

Where was the desperately needed centre-half? Well, at least there we had the intention of signing Marc Guehi before Manchester City later swooped in to save us the trouble.

Should Slot have done more with the tools at his disposal? Almost certainly. But the likes of Richard Hughes, Michael Edwards and Co. should be considered jointly responsible for the circumstances that contributed to his sacking.

Next Liverpool manager: Step forward Andoni Iraola

We’re all intimately, painfully familiar with what happened next.

Thankfully, decision-makers at L4 have settled on making the right decision to move the manager on and instigate a proper reset ahead of the summer transfer window.

And juding by Andoni Iraola’s first words in the job, it seems they’ve picked a man who understands what it takes to do the job justice.

“Football at the end is about emotion,” the Basque-born head coach told the club’s official website. “I understand it’s also a privilege but also a big responsibility, because all those people want to be represented properly and we are here for this.

“I would love from my side, from the players’ side, so all those people, [to] identify also with the football, identify with the values of the squad and we are all in for this.”

Big tick from us here at Empire of the Kop.

An uncertain few months ahead

It’s not all done and dusted, of course. A lot of work needs to take place to ensure the mistakes of 2025/26 don’t resurface next term, which means we’re going to need quite a number of bodies coming in.

With that in mind, Liverpool supporters will spend the offseason closely tracking transfer news and seeing how the club’s players perform in the World Cup in North America.

Having Champions League football to look forward to next season will keep fans happy, but a failure to give the manager the resources he needs to fulfil his high-octane brand of football will prove crippling.