Liverpool will have a new manager next season after Arne Slot was sacked on Saturday.
The news came as a huge surprise to Reds fans who had more or less accepted that the Dutchman would be in charge for a third campaign.
However, the axe has swung on Slot, and, before he has even had time to clear out his desk at the AXA Training Centre, Andoni Iraola has been named as the man most likely to replace him.
Is Andoni Iraola the best option to replace Arne Slot? If not, who would you appoint?
As ever with a new manager, there will be focus and excitement on who could follow him into the post and make up part of the new Liverpool coaching staff.
Unusually, Iraola did not take his assistant manager at Rayo Vallecano, Inigo Perez, with him to Bournemouth, but after Perez stepped up to become Rayo manager and took them to the Conference League final before leaving on Friday, it looks very possible that the Spaniard will now arrive to back up his old boss at Anfield.
Inigo Perez will surely arrive at Liverpool
When he joined Bournemouth in 2023, Iraola had initially wanted Perez to join him on the South Coast.
However, permit issues blocked that from happening, meaning the 38-year-old stayed in Madrid, where he took over as manager in 2024.
READ MORE: Liverpool are already making a signing that’s absolutely perfect for Andoni Iraola
After guiding them to consecutive eighth placed finishes, though, and a European final, it has been announced that Perez will depart.
The timing feels convenient, and although Perez will perhaps have his eyes on continuing a hugely promising managerial career of his own, he is still only 38, and the chance to join up with his former boss at Liverpool will surely be too good to turn down.
Are there other candidates?
Obviously, Iraola will have a set of coaches who he prefers to work with, but his team at Bournemouth are seemingly staying put at the Vitality Stadium.
The Basque took his fitness coach, Pablo De la Torre with him, and he will be one to watch, but in terms of assistant managers, it very well seems to be a blank slate.
How happy are you that Arne Slot is leaving Liverpool?!
Why did Liverpool wait so long to sack him?
As of yet, Liverpool have not officially confirmed if Slot’s backroom team will follow him out of the club. However, it is hard to see any of them, at least the likes of Sipke Hulshoff and Giovanni van Bronckhorst, staying without their countryman.
Liverpool could perhaps bring back John Heitinga, who is a free agent, but otherwise there could be something of a blank slate.
Thiago Alcantara left Barcelona recently, and, given his nationality and clear coaching acumen, there will no doubt be rumours that the former No. 6 could return to Liverpool with Iraola.
For the time being, though, we would be amazed if it were not Perez. Unless those pesky work permit issues arise once again, of course.
Given what he has achieved at Rayo since Iraola left, that would make for a hugely exciting appointment which Liverpool fans can look forward to with glee.
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