TIME FOR A COACH TRIP
It was only a matter of time before one of football’s big clubs placed their future in the hands of AI. Happily for Liverpool, they’ve plumped for a man with those initials rather than a rapidly growing technology that has been expertly designed to fill billionaires’ pockets. Yep, Andoni Iraola has verbally agreed to replace Arne Slot as Liverpool head coach and will go from walking on water at Bournemouth to hearing – maybe even singing, though he doesn’t look like a touchline lungs man – You’ll Never Walk Alone before every home game. The last time Liverpool appointed a Spanish manager, they were champions of Europe within a year. And Iraola will inherit a stronger squad than Rafa Benítez did in 2004 – albeit one that was put together by a manager whose style of play is very different to Iraola’s.
Slot prioritised possession, arguably to a fault, and only Manchester City had a higher average than Liverpool’s 59.3% in the Premier League. Iraola’s Bournemouth team (50.1%, since you asked, 11th out of 20) are much closer in spirit to Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool. You’ll be reading a lot about heavy metal in the next few days, mainly regurgitations of Mohamed Salah’s recent quotes. “I want to see Liverpool go back to being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear and back to being a team that wins trophies,” spaffed Salah on Instachat after Liverpool were hammered at Aston Villa. “That is the football I know how to play and that is the identity that needs to be recovered and kept for good. It cannot be negotiable and everyone that joins this club should adapt to it.”
Iraola won’t need to adapt tactically, and all the available evidence suggests he is a top-class coach. The success or failure of his appointment will probably depend on how well he adapts to the scrutiny and pressure of such a huge job. The imminent appointment of Iraola continues a dizzying managerial merry-go-round, with teams keen to get their business done before the Geopolitics World Cup consumes us all for 39 days and 39 nights. Marco Silva is expected to replace José Mourinho at Benfica, which means Fulham, Manchester City and Crystal Palace are looking for new gaffers. So are Salford City, who have given Karl Robinson the boot after losing in the League Two playoff final. Salford have been through five full-time managers in the 2020s. Maybe it’s time to give Claude a go, and we don’t mean Puel.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“One hundred per cent! I feel like everyone in the squad and the staff believes we can win it” – Kobbie Mainoo veers dangerously close to roaring “it’s coming home!!!” when chatting to reporters at England’s first GWC training session in Miami.
Tonda Eckert’s ‘For everything that has happened I want to apologise’ non-apology manages to completely miss the point. Things didn’t ‘happen’, Tonda, you and your staff ‘did things’ and you should be apologising for ‘everything that we did’. I am reminded of Ronald Reagan’s infamous ‘mistakes were made’. Of course, one should always make allowances for people with limited English skills, but what is Eckert’s excuse?” – Carl Zetie.
Interesting riff on the ‘You’re Tim Payne’ song. Personally, I wouldn’t classify Carly Simon as either ‘soft rock’ or album oriented rock (Football Daily letters passim). She’s more in the singer-songwriter genre for me. By the way, her sister Joanna was an acclaimed opera singer. Nessun Dorma, anyone?” – Mike Wilner.
If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day is … Carl Zetie. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.
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