Liverpool and Arne Slot have today officially parted ways, with the club conducting a season-end review and deciding that between the poor performances and results of the 2025-26 season and the increasingly unhappy mood of the supporters at Anfield the Dutch trainer’s position was untenable.
Now, questions will turn to what comes next, and whatever does come next is likely to happen quickly. It also seems nearly certain what comes next will be Andoni Iraola. The 43-year-old Basque head coach this week confirmed he was moving on from Bournemouth this summer after three years in charge.
When he did, speculation immediately turned to Liverpool given not just his success with the Premier League club but the attractive, high-tempo style of play he deploys that embraces both the press and rapid attacking—the lack of which made the 2025-26 season hard to watch under Slot at Liverpool.
Iraola spent much of his playing career at right back for Atheltic Bilbao, where he made more than 400 appearances, before moving into coaching with Cypriot club AEK Larnaca in 2018. That was followed by a move to Mirandes in the Spanish second tier, then Rayo Vallecano, and then Bournemouth.
Shortly after the club announced they were parting ways with Slot, a slew of club-connected journalists including The Times’ Paul Joyce and The Atheltic’s James Pearceand David Ornstein all came out with statements signalling that Iraola was Liverpool’s top choice to become the club’s new manager.