Liverpool will hold formal talks with Andoni Iraola over their managerial vacancy this week and hope to install Arne Slot’s successor before the World Cup begins.
Liverpool are planning to move quickly in their search for a new head coach and intend to speak to their preferred candidates at the earliest opportunity. Contact has been made with Iraola’s camp and formal talks are expected over the coming days. The club are also likely to sound out Stuttgart’s Sebastian Hoeness and Pierre Sage, of Lens, but the former Bournemouth head coach, who was brought to the south coast by Liverpool’s sporting director, Richard Hughes, is the frontrunner to replace Slot.
Milan, Bayer Leverkusen and Crystal Palace have all made approaches to Iraola since he left Bournemouth after three impressive seasons, his final campaign delivering European football to the Vitality Stadium for the first time. There could also be rival interest in Sage from Palace. Liverpool, therefore, need to act swiftly and want to conclude the entire process before the World Cup starts on 11 June to give the new man ample time to prepare.
That schedule also enhances Iraola’s claims. Liverpool would have to pay compensation to extract Hoeness, Sage or another employed coach from their current clubs whereas the 43-year-old Basque is out of contract and available now.
Slot was informed his Liverpool career was over approximately 90 minutes before the club announced their decision at 12.30pm on Saturday. He was sacked after a review into Liverpool’s troubled season that was led by Hughes and Michael Edwards, the chief executive of football at the club’s owner, Fenway Sports Group. FSG continues to back the pair to lead Liverpool’s football operation despite the disappointing return on last summer’s outlay on new signings of almost £450m.
Hughes and Edwards are understood to have started their review before the end of the season. Slot was assessed along with the data behind the team’s performances. Players were not consulted and, although supporter unrest was taken into account, it is not believed to have played a decisive role in their final conclusion that the team were unlikely to improve under Slot. FSG then signed off Hughes’s and Edwards’s recommendation.
On Sunday Virgil van Dijk paid tribute to Slot, the captain writing on Instagram: “We’ll never forget winning the Premier League in our first season together. Thank you, Trainer, and best of luck to you and your family for the future.”
