Liverpool have sacked Arne Slot and the Reds’ sporting director Richard Hughes will begin the work to finalise his replacement, who could be a man he knows very well
Liverpool confirmed the sacking of manager Arne Slot on Saturday afternoon, following the Reds’ dismal defence of the Premier League title and one candidate has emerged as the strong favourite to replace him.
The Dutchman won the league in his first campaign at Anfield after succeeding the legendary Jurgen Klopp, but this season has been a misery as they finished fifth in the table to narrowly secure Champions League football – 25 points behind champions Arsenal.
Slot was dismissed after months of speculation and it transpired in recent weeks that his job had been at serious risk for some time. Liverpool’s Fenway Sports Group (FSG) owners pulled the trigger and it now falls on sporting director Richard Hughes – the man who hired Slot in the first place – to lead the search for his replacement.
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However, it appears Liverpool and Hughes won’t have to cast their net too wide to find him with Andoni Iraola, who left Bournemouth at the end of the season, the clear favourite to take the job.
Iraola is well known to Hughes through his time on the south coast, and it’s said Hughes was instrumental in hiring the 43-year-old Spaniard when he was technical director at Bournemouth in 2023.
The Cherries’ owner Bill Foley revealed back in October 2023 that Hughes had pushed hard to appoint Iraola after three years of impressing at Rayo Vallecano.
Foley told the Men In Blazers podcast: “It was really a style of play that we were engaging in. We were really a counter-attacking team. I felt we needed to be on the offence. We needed to be aggressive, we needed to attack. That’s Andoni’s style. He’s a [Marcelo] Bielsa student and fast-paced.
“When we had the opportunity, it came to us from Richard Hughes, our technical director. He came to myself and to Neill Blake, the CEO, and then we started talking about it. I said ‘if we don’t do this now, we may never have the chance to do this again’.
“’We just need to be aggressive and we need to be willing to make change. If you don’t make change, then you’re not going to be successful’.”
He added: “First I listened to Richard Hughes and to Simon Francis, one of his top assistants,” Foley said of Iraola’s acquisition.
“They were intrigued by Andoni. They convinced Neill Blake that this was a move that we have a chance to do, we have a chance to make and if we don’t make this move, we’re going to regret it in the future. That’s really all they had to tell me.
“I did a little research on Andoni and I was satisfied that he would be an agent of change and that’s what I always look for, how can we change, be more effective and constantly improve. I believe he’s going to do it.
“People say you may have made a mistake. I said, if I’ve made a mistake, it’s on me, I’ll take responsibility, because I was involved in the decision-making process.”
Bournemouth certainly didn’t make a mistake appointing Iraola as he took the club from strength to strength, culminating in a club highest 6th place finish in the league and a place in the Europa League for the first time ever.
Iraola’s talent at developing young talents like Rayan, Junior Kroupi and Alex Scott has been key to their incredible season, as well as the huge rebuilding job needed last summer after losing Dominic Solanke, Ilya Zabarnyi, Dean Huijsen, Milos Kerkez and Antoine Semenyo in January – something he may need to do if appointed at Liverpool following the exits of Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson.