Andoni Iraola Set to Become Liverpool Manager

1. Why did Liverpool choose Andoni Iraola over Xabi Alonso?

Xabi Alonso was the fan favourite. The legendary Liverpool midfielder had been the loudest name connected with the Anfield post for months, and the consensus pick once he left Real Madrid after six months in charge. Then Alonso took Chelsea instead, signing a four-year deal at Stamford Bridge in late May.

That cleared the field. Liverpool sources have indicated the club never actually approached Alonso's camp in recent months, and that suggestions FSG walked away over a control disagreement were wide of the mark. Iraola, by contrast, has been on Liverpool's long-term shortlist since his Rayo Vallecano days four years ago, when sporting director Richard Hughes first assessed him as a Klopp successor in waiting. Hughes was the man who appointed Iraola at Bournemouth in 2023. The relationship matters.

Iraola has called himself a disciple of Klopp's high-intensity football and the German coaches who built the gegenpressing era. The fit was always tactical and ideological as much as personnel.

2. From Athletic Bilbao to Anfield: Iraola's path

Iraola spent 12 of his 17 playing seasons at Athletic Bilbao, racking up more than 500 competitive matches at right-back before finishing his career at New York City FC in 2016. He won the Cypriot Super Cup with AEK Larnaca in his first coaching job, then took over CD Mirandés in July 2019 and led the second-division side to the Copa del Rey semi-finals, beating Celta, Sevilla and Villarreal along the way.

Rayo Vallecano followed in August 2020. He won them promotion via the play-offs in his first season and stayed three years. Bournemouth came in 2023, and the three seasons that followed took the south-coast club from relegation fight to its highest-ever Premier League finish at sixth and a first European qualification.

He has never managed in continental football. The minimum of 48 games Liverpool are guaranteed next season already exceeds the number of matches he has previously coached in any single top-flight campaign.

3. What Iraola inherits at Anfield

A Champions League place, a fractured dressing room and the most expensive squad Liverpool have ever assembled. The 2025-26 summer ran to £446 million in transfer outlay, with the £125 million signing of Alexander Isak from Newcastle headlining a window that also brought Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike. Isak fractured his fibula in December. Ekitike ruptured his Achilles in April. The three marquee signings shared the pitch for 119 minutes across the entire season.

The squad has been further weakened by the kind of departures that change a club's identity. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Díaz left for Real Madrid and Bayern Munich last summer. Mohamed Salah leaves on a free transfer this summer after publicly accusing Slot of throwing him "under the bus" last November. Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konaté also depart as free agents. Signed Trent Alexander-Arnold memorabilia and signed Luis Díaz shirts from his Liverpool years are part of the authenticated catalogue at MVPs.

Iraola's first job is to win back a dressing room that lost faith in his predecessor, then turn the £446 million squad into a coherent team while he learns the demands of European football for the first time. The new season begins in August.