Andoni Iraola Takes Charge of Liverpool: A New Era Begins

Andoni Iraola walks into Anfield with his eyes wide open and his ambition even wider.

A year ago he was the bright disruptor at AFC Bournemouth, dragging a club of modest means to sixth place and into Europe for the first time in their history. Now he inherits Liverpool, the side that finished just one place above his former team and only a season removed from being crowned champions of England.

This is not a man daunted by the step up.

“Liverpool is Liverpool,” he told the club’s website on his first day in the job, a simple line that said plenty. The pull of Anfield, the noise, the red wall on a European night – he did not need a sales pitch. “The atmosphere, the supporters, the club, the players, the chance for me to coach top-level players, the chance to fight for titles. I think it cannot be more attractive than this.”

He knows exactly what he has signed up for: expectation, scrutiny, and the demand for silverware. And he sounds like he cannot wait.

Iraola’s early blueprint

The new head coach will start pre-season without a core chunk of his dressing room. Eleven Liverpool players are at the upcoming FIFA World Cup, which reshapes his first weeks in charge.

For Iraola, that is not a problem. It is an opportunity.

“The senior players that have played in the World Cup, they’ve been feeling the pressure, they’ve been playing for their countries, I think they need and deserve a rest,” he said. That pause for the stars opens the door for others. Training pitches that usually belong to established internationals will, for a while, be handed to those who have been on the fringes.

“And also this allows us to give also important minutes to train more closely with the young players that probably we don’t know as well,” he added. Those who have been with the development squad, those out on loan, those who have barely had a look-in – they will be under his microscope.

“There are other players probably that haven’t had the minutes, have played for the development squad, have been on loan somewhere, and I think those trainings, those minutes will be very valuable for us to take decisions.”

Decisions about who stays. Who goes. Who might suddenly become part of a new Liverpool era.

Diomande in Liverpool’s sights

One decision looming large is how to replace Mohamed Salah. Nine seasons, a mountain of goals, and a legacy that will hang over whoever pulls on that right-wing shirt next.

Liverpool have started to move.

RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande has emerged as a leading candidate to become Iraola’s first signing. The Athletic’s David Ornstein reports that the club have made contact with Leipzig over the 19-year-old, whose numbers in Germany last season jolted scouts across Europe.

• Thirteen goals.
• Ten assists.
• Thirty-six appearances in all competitions.
• A key figure in Leipzig’s charge to Champions League qualification.
• One statistic that leaps off the page: 118 successful dribbles, a full 50 more than any other player in the Bundesliga.

No wonder Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City are also circling.

If he does end up at Anfield, it will not be Diomande’s first brush with English football. His route has been anything but straight. Trials at Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth came and went without a contract. He spent time at Rangers, rubbing shoulders with talents like Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze, an experience he later described as “just funny moving from club to club like this” and “a good experience”.

None of those stops turned into a home. Instead, he signed for Leganes in November 2024, making only 10 LaLiga appearances before Leipzig spotted the potential and moved last summer.

“Everything went fast,” he reflected. It is hard to argue. In the space of a year he has played at AFCON at 19, helped his country qualify for the World Cup, featured in the Champions League and now finds himself on the radar of some of Europe’s giants. “This year was amazing for me… I am just proud.”

Liverpool need a new right-sided spearhead. Diomande looks like a player built for the stage, the kind who runs at defenders when others hesitate. Whether he becomes the man to follow Salah is still to be decided, but the first calls have been made.

United double down on their transfer model

Across the north-west, Manchester United are preparing for a very different kind of summer – by trying to repeat the last one.

Third place in the Premier League, a forward line that finally found some rhythm, and a recruitment drive that hit more than it missed. United’s outfield trio of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko all reached double figures for league goals after arriving before the 2025/26 campaign. Behind them, goalkeeper Senne Lammens has just been named Barclays Transfer of the Season.

For chief executive Omar Berrada, that is not a coincidence. It is a template.

“I think the template for what we did last summer will be replicated,” he told the club’s Inside Carrington podcast. The message is clear: controlled, targeted, no more scattergun spending.

“You always go into a window and you don’t know how you’re going to come out of it, but you have to be really prepared,” he said. Positions to strengthen are already mapped out. Contingencies are in place. If an unexpected exit lands on his desk, they want to be ready. If a surprise opportunity appears, they want to be able to pounce.

“So, we have to be ready, we have to be agile and flexible. But we have a clear plan.”

The balance they struck last season – between experience and youth, between proven Premier League performers and those shining abroad – is the model they intend to follow again.

“I do think what we saw last season is a good way forward for us, which is we want a mix of experience and youth, we want a mix of players who have demonstrated they can perform in the Premier League and perhaps also players who are doing very well outside the Premier League.”

The first major move of this window is already in motion. BBC Sport reported earlier this week that United have agreed a £35 million deal with Atalanta for Brazil midfielder Ederson, another sign that the recruitment department is sticking to its script.

Amad stuns France on the eve of the World Cup

While club executives plot and negotiate, some of their players are busy unsettling the favourites on the international stage.

France, finalists in 2022 and widely tipped to go one better at this summer’s World Cup, were handed a jolt by Ivory Coast – and by a Manchester United winger who has grown used to big moments.

Rayan Cherki had given France the lead on the cusp of half-time, the Manchester City forward curling in a brilliant effort that seemed to underline the gulf in attacking depth between the two nations.

Then came Amad.

Introduced from the bench, he seized his moment in the 84th minute, sweeping a first-time finish into the bottom corner to seal a 2-1 win and silence the home crowd. One touch, one chance, ruthless execution.

The game carried a strong Premier League flavour. Lucas Digne, Maxence Lacroix, Malo Gusto, Ibrahima Konate and Jean-Philippe Mateta all featured for France. Ivory Coast leaned on Ibrahim Sangare and Simon Adingra among others.

For Didier Deschamps, it was a setback – but not a crisis.

“It’s a wake-up call, if we needed one,” the France coach said. “I’m not going to dramatise the defeat, just as I wouldn’t have become overly excited if we had won. It’s part of the preparation process.”

A reminder, then, that even the favourites can be rattled, and that players like Amad are arriving at the tournament in sharp, decisive form.

Gyokeres on target as Sweden share the spoils

Elsewhere in the warm-up schedule, Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres found his range in Sweden’s 2-2 draw with Greece.

Kostas Tsimikas, Liverpool’s left-back, opened the scoring for Greece before Gyokeres bent in a free-kick early in the second half to drag Sweden level. It was the sort of finish Arsenal fans have quickly come to expect: clean, controlled, and delivered when his side needed it.

Leeds United’s Gabriel Gudmundsson, Brighton & Hove Albion’s Yasin Ayari and Liverpool’s Alexander Isak all started for Sweden, underlining once again how deeply the Premier League runs through this summer’s international storylines.

Iraola building a new Liverpool, United doubling down on a transfer strategy that finally works, Diomande and Amad forcing their way into the conversation, Gyokeres sharpening his edge – the season may be over, but the power lines of the Premier League are already being redrawn.