Top players, title fights - why Iraola feels ready for Liverpool

Below is a summary of the full article. Click here for the full version from BBC or go back to LFC Live.

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Andoni Iraola won seven caps for Spain in a playing career that mainly saw him play for Athletic BilbaoByTom RostanceBBC Sport journalist and Mandeep SangheraBBC Sport journalistLiverpool have appointed Andoni Iraola as their head coach on a two-year contract following the sacking of Arne Slot.The Reds announced Slot's exit on Saturday, a year after the Dutchman guided them to the Premier League title, and have moved swiftly to bring in a successor.Former Bournemouth manager Iraola, 43, joins after delivering the Cherries' finest top-flight season to date, finishing in sixth place.That was only one position and three points behind Liverpool and gave Bournemouth a place in next season's Europa League.The Spaniard announced in April that he would leave Bournemouth this summer and he had been linked with Crystal Palace and AC Milan.Now he moves to Merseyside, with Liverpool having qualified for next season's Champions League despite finishing the Premier League season with 60 points - their lowest tally since 2015-16 and a distant 25 points behind winners Arsenal."Really excited, really excited," said Iraola. Now all three will be Premier League managers next season.For a while, Iraola did not think he would make football his profession, and he was three years into a law degree when he gave it up to commit to the demands of playing at full-back for Athletic Club.After coaching in Cyprus and taking recent Conference League finalists Rayo Vallecano back into the Spanish top flight, he arrived in England with a relatively low profile but soon made his name by making Bournemouth a Premier League force.The jump to Anfield is a big one, but just who is the man chosen to replace Slot?Child's play to Bielsa-ball and NYC experienceFigure caption, Andoni Iraola on growing up with Arteta and Alonso and his coaching influencesIraola started his football education at renowned Basque amateur club Antiguoko alongside Alonso and Arteta, who are now in charge at Chelsea and Arsenal respectively.They played football on the beach as children, but only when the tide was out.Iraola told BBC Sport's Kelly Somers last year: "It's incredible because when we were seven, eight, nine, I played with Mikel Arteta, I played with Xabi Alonso."We are more or less the same age, playing sometimes against each other because I was in a school and they were in other schools when we were playing on the beach."Then after we played together in a small club, also in Antiguoko, and now it's amazing that we see each other on the football pitches almost 40 years later."Iraola spent the bulk of his playing career with Athletic Club, where he worked under top coaches such as Marcelo Bielsa, who led the Bilbao side to two finals in 2012, and future Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde.But it was when he left the club in 2015 to see out his career at New York City FC that he truly got to rub shoulders with the game's elite, playing in a team containing Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo and David Villa, and managed by Patrick Vieira."It was the moment where I realised I was going to retire and I started thinking about the game in a different way," Iraola said."I also had Patrick Vieira as a coach.

He showed me a different style of play because he was coming from the Manchester City academy, where there was more positional play, and I was used to a different style of play."Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Iraola played over 500 games for Athletic Club, competing against the likes of Raul at Real MadridProving his worth with smaller clubsIraola has a history of overachieving everywhere he has been, beginning with his playing career.He spent 15 years with Athletic Club, who famously only pick players with ties to the Basque Country. He got to know Eddie Howe when the ex-Bournemouth manager was on a sabbatical before he moved to Newcastle United, inviting him to Madrid to watch his Rayo team train and "exchange ideas, especially on how to set up against the biggest teams".Iraola had no problem doing just that last season with Bournemouth as his side beat Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal, Newcastle and Everton, garnering fans and friends with an exciting brand of football that was not derailed by the January sale of star man Antoine Semenyo.Another Spaniard, Pep Guardiola, even used Iraola's side as an example of "modern football" last year.Guardiola said: "Today, modern football is the way that Bournemouth play, that Newcastle play, Brighton play - Liverpool have always been like that."In 2025-26, Bournemouth went on an 18-game unbeaten run.Fans at Anfield will hope for a similar upturn now that Iraola has the chance to work with a squad of established stars and big-money signings.The new head coach will certainly look to build a strong relationship with fans - counting that rapport as important as results on the pitch.Iraola said in his BBC Sport interview last year: "The most important thing when I come to a new club is this: when I leave, I hope everyone has good things to say about me."When I come back 10 years later, I still have relationships with people inside the clubs.

This has happened in all the clubs I have been and I hope it continues."Iraola got to sample the Anfield crowd in the opening game of last season when Bournemouth were level at 2-2 with Liverpool before the Reds won thanks to late goals from Federico Chiesa and Mohamed Salah."I've been the other side - I still remember the goal Chiesa scored at the end of the first game of the season," Iraola said on Thursday, as his appointment was rubber-stamped at Liverpool."We were there with 2-2 thinking that probably we could take something. I want now to feel this from the other side."At the beginning when you arrive at any club, I think you need to kind of prove a little bit yourself.