Andoni Iraola's Ambitious Start at Liverpool

Andoni Iraola walks into Anfield with a grin that says he knows exactly what he has signed up for.

Not a project. Not a rebuild. A fight for trophies.

Iraola’s leap into the deep end

Twelve months ago he was the bright disruptor at AFC Bournemouth, steering a club many tipped for trouble into sixth place and European football for the first time in their history. Now he inherits the team that finished just one place above them, a season removed from lifting the Premier League title.

The scale of the jump does not intimidate him. It energises him.

“I think you don't need a lot of things to get attracted by Liverpool,” he told the club’s website on his first day in the job. “Liverpool is Liverpool.”

The line lands with the blunt certainty of someone who has spent years watching those red shirts from afar. Then he gets to the core of it: the atmosphere, the supporters, the calibre of players, the chance to coach at the very top and, crucially, “the chance to fight for titles”.

“It’s difficult to find it,” he added. “So, really excited to start.”

He will start without a large chunk of his senior dressing room. Eleven Liverpool players are heading to the FIFA World Cup, leaving Iraola with a very different group for the opening weeks of pre-season. He does not see a problem. He sees an opening.

“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 rest gives him time and space with the others – the squad players, the loanees, the youngsters who have been living on the fringes.

“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 explained. “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 on who stays, who steps up, and who becomes part of the next iteration of Liverpool under a demanding, front-foot coach.

Diomande in the frame as Salah successor

One decision looms larger than the rest: life after Mohamed Salah.

Liverpool need a new right winger. Not a squad option, but a central figure in the attack. The first serious candidate has emerged from Germany.

RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande, 19, has lit up the Bundesliga and is now firmly on Liverpool’s radar. According to The Athletic’s David Ornstein, the club have made contact with Leipzig about a possible deal for the Ivorian, who has also drawn interest from Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.

The numbers from his breakout season are impossible to ignore. Thirteen goals and 10 assists in 36 games in all competitions. A key role in firing Leipzig into the UEFA Champions League. And a dribbling profile that screams chaos: 118 successful dribbles, 50 more than any other player in the Bundesliga.

If he does end up at Anfield, it will not be his first taste of English football. As a teenager he bounced through trials at Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth, and even spent time at Rangers in Scotland.

“I did not know what was going on,” he told Sky Sports of that 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.”

None of those stops turned into a contract. Instead, his path veered to Spain, where he signed for Leganes in November 2024. Ten LaLiga appearances later, Leipzig moved quickly and decisively last summer.

“Everything went fast,” Diomande 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.”

Now comes the next fork in the road. Stay in Germany as the star of a Champions League side, or step into the vacancy on Liverpool’s right flank, where the shadow of Salah will hang heavy over whoever follows.

United double down on their transfer blueprint

Across the north-west, Manchester United are preparing for a different kind of summer. Not a reset, but a repeat.

Their chief executive Omar Berrada has made it clear: last year’s transfer strategy, which underpinned a third-place finish, is the model.

“I think the template for what we did last summer will be replicated,” he told the club’s Inside Carrington podcast.

United’s recruitment in 2025 was targeted and, crucially, productive. Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko all arrived and all hit double figures in the Premier League. Between them, they gave United a new attacking spine. Behind them, Senne Lammens came in and was this week named Barclays Transfer of the Season.

Berrada knows windows rarely unfold exactly as planned, but he stressed that the planning itself is non-negotiable.

“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. “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.”

Exits can surprise. Opportunities can appear from nowhere. The response, he insists, must be sharp.

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

“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.”

That balance will be tested immediately. BBC Sport reported this week that United have agreed a £35 million deal with Atalanta for Brazil midfielder Ederson, a move that would add more bite and drive in the middle of the pitch.

If last summer was the template, this one will show whether United can turn a single smart window into a sustained pattern.

Amad stuns France as World Cup countdown begins

While executives talk strategy, the players are already fighting for rhythm and places ahead of the World Cup. In Lyon, one of United’s own delivered a jolt to the tournament favourites.

France, loaded with talent and widely tipped to go all the way again, were handed a sharp reminder of football’s capacity to twist. Leading Ivory Coast in a warm-up game, they were undone late by Amad.

Rayan Cherki had given France the lead on the stroke of half-time with a brilliant strike that felt like a statement from a squad brimming with attacking options. The game drifted towards a routine win.

Then Amad arrived.

Off the bench, he found space, saw the chance and, in the 84th minute, whipped a first-time finish into the bottom corner. A wonderful goal, the sort that sticks in a manager’s mind when final squads and starting line-ups are debated.

Didier Deschamps did not rage. He reflected.

“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.”

Plenty of Premier League interest threaded through the contest. Lucas Digne, Maxence Lacroix, Malo Gusto, Ibrahima Konate and Jean-Philippe Mateta featured for France, while Ibrahim Sangare and Simon Adingra joined Amad on the Ivory Coast side.

Elsewhere on the continent, Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres continued his own World Cup build-up with a goal in Sweden’s 2-2 draw against Greece. Liverpool defender Kostas Tsimikas opened the scoring for Greece before Gyokeres bent in a free-kick early in the second half. Leeds United’s Gabriel Gudmundsson, Brighton & Hove Albion’s Yasin Ayari and Liverpool’s Alexander Isak all started for Sweden.

These are only warm-ups on paper. On the pitch, they are auditions, warning shots, and confidence builders.

For Iraola at Liverpool, for Berrada at United, for Diomande, Amad and the rest, the stakes are already rising. The new season and the World Cup are coming fast. Who seizes that momentum now will define how they look when the real games start.