According to fresh reports from Sky Sports on Thursday morning, Andoni Iraola would be ‘interested in going to’ Liverpool if the opportunity were to arise.
Following his exit from Bournemouth, who he’s now guided into Europe for the first time in their history, the 43-year-old is set to be one of the most in-demand head coaches in world football this summer as his next move is awaited with keen interest.
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He’d reportedly been in talks with AC Milan in recent days and is also said to be admired by the Anfield hierarchy, although it looks for all the world as though Arne Slot will keep his job despite coming under intense external scrutiny following a dreadful season on Merseyside.
Iraola would be ‘interested in going to’ Liverpool
Just after 10:30am on Thursday, Sky Sports News shared a ‘breaking news’ update live on air regarding Iraola.
They stated: “We’ve got an update on the future of Andoni Iraola. We had been reporting that he’s in talks with AC Milan, which is true. However, we have just been told that those talks are not really progressing.
“Does that give Crystal Palace some hope? We’re told no; he seems no more likely to join Crystal Palace either. We are told that really he doesn’t want to leave Bournemouth who are sixth, to go to Crystal Palace who are 15th, despite winning that [Conference League] trophy last night.
“A little bit more to this as well – we’re told that clubs that Andoni Iraola is interested in going to are Bayer Leverkusen and Liverpool, but there’s no vacancy at Liverpool because Arne Slot is staying.”
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Iraola set to be the master of his own destiny
Discourse over Iraola and Liverpool would seem to be moot for now, with Anfield chiefs set to maintain their faith in Slot despite a dismal 2025/26 campaign, but this update from Sky is bound to intrigue Reds supporters nonetheless.
Considering the exceptional job he’s done at Bournemouth, who finished just one place and three points behind LFC in the Premier League on a much lower budget, the Spaniard is likely to be the master of his own destiny, choosing his next club rather than having to wait for someone to choose him.
The two clubs he’d reportedly be interested in joining both have head coaches in place at present (Kasper Hjulmand at Leverkusen), so the 43-year-old might need to be patient for an opening to arise at either Anfield or the BayArena.
However, with it now being made known that Iraola would seemingly like the opportunity to take charge at Liverpool, it heaps further pressure on Slot to hit the ground running next season and dispel the now-widespread discontent over his performance in the LFC dugout.
If the Dutchman doesn’t instigate a rapid improvement in the early weeks of 2026/27, the possibility of FSG turning to the former Bournemouth boss can’t be discounted, unless another club were to employ him in the meantime.
Slot is here to stay, until his contract runs out, or most likely he’s sacked come October.
I’d love to see the 64 page dossier that Richard Hughes put together on slot. Which persuaded FSG clowns to appoint him.
I could put together a better 64 page dossier on Iraola and Glasner, on what they’ve achieved, which is far more deserving of the Liverpool job than what slot did in Holland.
Does make you wonder what Iraola and Glasner would do with the Liverpool players , and 450 million to spend.
Let’s all get behind slot and pretend everything is fine.
Anyone who doesn’t support the manager and charlatan owners FSG is a clown.
We will always support the manager and club, that’s a given but Under Klopp it was “In Klopp we trust”. That was pretty easy even in some of the more difficult times at the beginning, given we could see a style of play trying to be achieved combined with the type of players we were recruiting. Now we have no idea of what is happening. In just over 1 year, the title winning squad has been totally dismantled, there is no clear plan or style, the managers excuses have been an embarrassment (Can’t break down a low block, struggle with long throwing’s etc etc) to the club players look bored and disinterested (Hence our worst defensive display in 50 years), to the point Salah (yes he had a poor season by his standards) cancelling the last year of his contract, and there are rumours that VVD may do the same, Allision is interested in Juve and Jones with Inter. The one thing we were good at (Recruitment) has been poor in that, selling Diaz, with no replacement, looking for a defensive midfielder for months, then getting no one, focusing on ISAK when Semenya, Cherki and Guehi (All linked with LFC) going to City for 5m LESS than we paid for him, allowing Trent to run down his contract so he left for next to nothing, Robbo going on a free, now Konate going on a free, not going for Senesi (free transfer) to cover this hole. Keeping injury prone Gomez and selling Quansah???? People called Salah selfish for his recent posts about going back to heavy metal football, but the worrying part of it is not the payers who played for Klopp liking the post but the likes of Etitike and Wirtz (who never played for Klopp) also liking it so clearly shows the new guys do not like our current style. We are very much on the brink, we were lucky to get CL football for next season, but I am worried, if we keep Slott, we could end up doing a Spurs next season, may sound extreme but never say never. Iraola is available and ready to come in, his style of play suits LFC perfectly.
Redmist21, would be talking about the “clown” who won the league title for us last season? Try being a fan instead of a follower, you sound like any other entitled Chelsea or Arsenal follower
Fsg just kept quiet on everything despite all the fans’ unhappiness. Until they come out with an official announcement, I dont trust any rumour.
Slot should be sack immediately
He has nothing to offer
Slot and yozzer are running this great club down and I don’t understand how people can sit back and let them. Support our club not the idiots who are running it down, they are not SUPPORTERS, these kind of people are supporters of whichever club they go to. DON’T LET THE FALSE SUPPORTERS PULL THE WOOL OVER THE TRUE SUPPORTERS EYES.