Liverpool sack Arne Slot after fifth-place finish with Iraola lined up as replacement

Liverpool have sacked manager Arne Slot after a second season that ended with a fifth-place Premier League finish, the club confirmed following an end-of-season review by Fenway Sports Group. Slot, who succeeded Jurgen Klopp, had been expected to remain in charge but FSG have opted for what the club’s official statement described as “a different approach”.

Slot leaves having taken charge of 113 games at Anfield, winning 66, drawing 19 and losing 28. The scale of the decline in his second campaign is stark: 19 of those 28 defeats came during the 2025/26 season alone. Despite heavy investment in the summer — with Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and others arriving — the team struggled to recapture the form that delivered the Premier League title in Slot’s debut season. Liverpool did secure a top-five finish, enough to qualify for next season’s Champions League, but it was not enough to save the Dutchman’s job.

The departures have mounted at Anfield. Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate all left the club, and Slot now joins them in exiting a squad that FSG believe requires a significant reset.

Andoni Iraola is understood to be Liverpool’s primary target to fill the vacancy. The Spaniard departed Bournemouth at the end of the season after guiding the Cherries to sixth place in the Premier League, capping a run of 18 league games without defeat. He has attracted interest from Crystal Palace and Bayer Leverkusen, but Liverpool are moving quickly.

A key figure in the pursuit is sporting director Richard Hughes, who worked with Iraola at Bournemouth before joining Liverpool in 2024 and was instrumental in the Cherries originally appointing the coach. Bournemouth owner Bill Foley previously credited Hughes with identifying Iraola, telling the Men in Blazers podcast: “It came to us from Richard Hughes, our technical director. He came to myself and to Neill Blake, the CEO, and then we started talking about it. I said if we don’t do this now, we may never have the chance to do this again.”

According to The Telegraph, Liverpool’s formal recruitment process may also consider other candidates. Sebastian Hoeness, who led Stuttgart to fourth in the Bundesliga this season, and Pierre Sage, who finished second in Ligue 1 with Lens and guided the club to their first Coupe de France title in 120 years, are among those who could be assessed.