Liverpool Confirm Andoni Iraola as Next Manager | OneFootball

Whether Liverpool were fair in sacking Arne Slot or not, what’s done is done. Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards made the decision, so the next thing that they had to do was make sure that they got the choice of the Dutchman’s replacement correct.

We know that Xabi Alonso was off the table, with Fenway Sports Group choosing to avoid the Spaniard because of fears that his possessive style of play was too similar to what had led the Kop to be disappointed in Slot last season. As a result, the pool to choose from wasn’t the biggest, but Iraola fitted the brief in being someone who likes to play an attacking style of football.

He Hasn’t Won Anything

The first thing we need to do is to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Whilst Andoni Iraola is someone who has performed well at all of his previous clubs, the one thing that he hasn’t done is win any silverware.

He began his managerial career at AEK Larnaca in Cyprus, but he didn’t manage to see out the season and failed to win a game in a period of nearly two months before he was sacked. That summer, he took over at Mirandés after the Spanish club had been promoted to the Segunda División, taking them to the semi-finals of the Spanish Cup for just the second time in the 92-year history of the football club.

That was some achievement with genuine minnows, knocking out Celta Vigo, Sevilla and Villarreal along the way, all of whom were top-flight teams. He then moved to fellow second division side Rayo Vallecano, taking them up to La Liga after winning the play-offs and then took them to the semi-finals of the Copa del Ray.

At the end of the season, he took the Bournemouth job and struggled initially, not winning a game until the tenth match week of his first season. He eventually led them to 12th, achieving a club record 48 points in the process. Last season, the Cherries went 18 games unbeaten and won a European place for the first time.

He’ll Get Us Playing Exciting Football

Anyone who watched Bournemouth last season will have been impressed by their style of play. There were more than a few that had the club down as being likely relegation candidates after they lost their entire backline and then sold Antoine Semenyo to Manchester City in January.

Instead, they were never really part of the relegation conversation and were ultimately unlucky not to earn a Champions League place. In truth, you can see positives or negatives in the campaign from the Cherries, depending on your point of view. Those with a positive mindset will unquestionably look at that 18-match unbeaten run and get excited.

Those that are inclined to be a little bit more negative in their thoughts will point out that there were ten draws in that run and they only won at home three times between the start of November and the end of the season. Even so, one of those wins was against us and they were also unlucky not to get anything out of the game at Anfield at the start of the season, having come from 2-0 down to make it 2-2 before late goals took the game away from them. They played the sort of football that Liverpool supporters want to watch, though, which is the key thing.

He himself has said in the past that he is more in the Jürgen Klopp school of management than anything else.

We Have a Path Forward

As the 2025-2026 campaign drew to a close, with all of the noises coming out of Anfield being that the Reds were going to stick with Arne Slot, the fear of many supporters was that there was no real way forward. We hadn’t seen anything from the Dutch head coach to suggest that he had plans for how he wanted Liverpool to play, nor did we have any sort of sense of what a Slot goal looked like.

The feeling around the entire fanbase, as well as some of the players if their social media activity was anything to go by, was was one of acceptance rather than excitement. Whatever else has happened with this appointment, people are excited now.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Liverpool Football Club (@liverpoolfc)

It is impossible to know right now how well or otherwise things will go for the Reds with Iraola at the helm. On that front, we just need to wait and see. We do know that a member of his backroom staff is a Liverpool supporter, whilst both James Milner and Thiago Alcantara have been linked with a coaching role.

His job is to do what he can to energise the fanbase and persuade the players to let go of last season and all of the entirely understandable things that made it a difficult time for them all. We have to start looking towards the future, which is something that a clean break should allow us to do. We might not win anything, but the possibilities now feel endless.