Owen names Iraola as Liverpool's best managerial option in testy on-air exchange

Michael Owen endorsed Andoni Iraola as the leading candidate to become Liverpool’s next manager during a sharp-edged interview at Chester races on Saturday, while also taking aim at the reporter questioning him.

Owen was approached by journalist Matt Chapman and asked who he would choose to replace Arne Slot, who departed Anfield on Saturday after two seasons in charge. “It looks like Iraola might have a chance, doesn’t it? The Bournemouth manager. Do you know him?” Owen said. When Chapman admitted he did not, Owen replied: “I know him very well” — before adding, “I love the way you ask football questions, but you don’t know anything about football.”

Chapman, a self-declared Tottenham supporter, fired back: “I know about survival in the Premier League, and that’s all that matters.” Owen had the final word: “Liverpool are a bit more than that, I think, but anyway.”

Slot leaves Liverpool having delivered a Premier League title in his first season before guiding the club to a fifth-place finish and Champions League qualification in his second. Liverpool are now moving quickly to identify a successor, with Iraola understood to be the clear frontrunner.

The club is expected to open talks with the 43-year-old Spaniard’s representatives this week, with Liverpool keen to have a new manager in place before the Club World Cup begins on June 11. Iraola spent three seasons at Bournemouth, culminating in a sixth-place Premier League finish last term — the highest in the south-coast club’s history — which also secured Europa League football for the first time.

His progressive, high-intensity style is believed to align closely with the profile Liverpool’s hierarchy have been seeking as they look to maintain the standards set under Slot and his predecessor Jürgen Klopp.