Andoni Iraola Begins Ambitious Liverpool Tenure
Andoni Iraola walks into Anfield with his eyes wide open and his ambitions even wider.
A year ago, he was dragging Bournemouth into Europe for the first time in their history. Now he inherits Liverpool, the club that finished a single place above his old side and were champions of England only a season earlier. The leap is enormous. He knows it. He wants it.
“I think you don't need a lot of things to get attracted by Liverpool,” he told the club’s website, summing up what so many managers have thought and so few have experienced. “Liverpool is Liverpool.”
That line hangs in the air. The rest explains why he has swapped the south coast for the Kop.
“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. It’s difficult to find it. So, really excited to start.”
This is not a man easing himself into the job. He is talking about titles on day one.
Iraola’s first test: build without his stars
The calendar offers him no gentle introduction. Eleven Liverpool players are heading to the FIFA World Cup, which means the new head coach will begin his work without a sizeable chunk of his senior core.
He is not complaining. He is plotting.
“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 break opens a different kind of window. While the stars recover, the doors swing open for those 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.
“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.”
The message is clear: reputations will not be enough. Iraola intends to use the summer to redraw the internal hierarchy, with the training pitches at Kirkby doubling as an audition stage.
Diomande on Liverpool’s radar as Salah heir
One of the biggest decisions has already been forced on Liverpool. Mohamed Salah, the defining right winger of the club’s modern era, is leaving after nine seasons. Replacing that output, that aura, that reliability is a task that shapes an entire transfer window.
Into that void steps a name gathering serious momentum: Yan Diomande.
RB Leipzig’s 19-year-old winger has become one of the most coveted young attackers in Europe after a breakout campaign in Germany. According to The Athletic’s David Ornstein, Liverpool have contacted Leipzig to explore a deal that could make Diomande Iraola’s first signing.
The numbers explain the interest. Thirteen goals and 10 assists in 36 appearances across all competitions. A key role in firing Leipzig into the UEFA Champions League. And then the detail that makes scouts sit forward: 118 successful dribbles, a total 50 clear of anyone else in the Bundesliga.
This is not just productivity. This is dominance in one-on-one situations, the kind of profile that echoes – but does not yet match – the threat Salah has provided for nearly a decade.
The journey to this point has not been smooth. Diomande has already had a tour of British football without ever securing a permanent home, with trials at Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth, plus a spell at Rangers.
“I did not know what was going on,” he told Sky Sports of that whirlwind period. “For me, it was just funny moving from club to club like this, to see players like [Michael] Olise and [Eberechi] Eze. That was a good experience.”
Those opportunities never turned into a contract. Instead, he landed at Leganes in November 2024, making only 10 LaLiga appearances before Leipzig moved decisively last summer.
“Everything went fast,” he said. “This year was amazing for me. To play in the AFCON at 19, to qualify for the World Cup, to play in the Champions League, and I am on my way to the World Cup. I am just proud.”
From trialist to Champions League winger in the space of two seasons. Now potentially the man asked to step into Salah’s territory at Anfield. If Liverpool push on with their interest, Iraola’s first major call could define the next era of the club’s attack.
United double down on their transfer blueprint
Across the north-west, Manchester United are not talking about revolution. They are talking about repetition.
A third-place finish in the Premier League and a recruitment drive that delivered instant returns have convinced the club’s hierarchy that last summer’s approach worked. Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko all hit double figures in league goals after arriving before the 2025/26 campaign. Behind them, goalkeeper Senne Lammens has just been named Barclays Transfer of the Season.
That is the template chief executive Omar Berrada intends to copy.
“I think the template for what we did last summer will be replicated,” he told the club’s Inside Carrington podcast.
He knows transfer windows rarely follow a neat script, but he wants United to be the ones holding the pen.
“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.
“You have to have a clear plan, you have to know exactly what positions you’re looking to strengthen and you also have to be prepared for any eventuality. There could be exits we’re not expecting, there could be opportunities in the market that perhaps weren’t there at the beginning of the window.
“So, we have to be ready, we have to be agile and flexible. But we have a clear plan.”
That plan blends two strands: proven Premier League performers and high-ceiling talent from elsewhere.
“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 next piece of that puzzle already appears to be in motion. BBC Sport reported this week that United have agreed a £35 million deal with Atalanta for Brazil midfielder Ederson. If last summer is the model, he will not be the last to walk through the door.
Amad stuns France as World Cup looms
While executives plot and managers plan, players are already sharpening their form on the international stage.
France, widely tipped as favourites for this summer’s World Cup, were reminded how quickly a script can flip. They led Ivory Coast in a warm-up match thanks to a brilliant strike from Manchester City’s Rayan Cherki right on the stroke of half-time. Control established, routine win in sight.
Then came Amad.
The Manchester United winger stepped off the bench and ripped up the evening’s narrative with a superb 84th-minute winner, steering a first-time finish into the bottom corner. A friendly in name, a statement in tone.
The cast list underlined the Premier League’s reach. Lucas Digne, Maxence Lacroix, Malo Gusto, Ibrahima Konate and Jean-Philippe Mateta all featured for France, with Ibrahim Sangare and Simon Adingra involved for Ivory Coast.
“It’s a wake-up call, if we needed one,” said France coach Didier Deschamps afterwards. “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.”
The warning has been delivered. France have time to respond. The rest of the world has taken note.
Gyokeres on target as Sweden share spoils
Elsewhere in Europe, another Premier League striker found his range.
Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres struck in Sweden’s 2-2 draw with Greece, curling in a free-kick early in the second half after Liverpool defender Kostas Tsimikas had opened the scoring for the visitors.
Leeds United’s Gabriel Gudmundsson, Brighton & Hove Albion’s Yasin Ayari and Liverpool’s Alexander Isak all started for Sweden, underlining again how deeply England’s top flight runs through the international game.
From Iraola’s first steps at Anfield to Diomande’s rising stock, from United’s transfer conviction to Amad’s late winner, the shape of the coming season is already being sketched. The real question now is who turns these June storylines into May trophies.
