Hughes Hired Iraola Twice, Then Left for Al-Hilal

Liverpool named Andoni Iraola head coach on June 4, five days after sacking Arne Slot. The club said the 43-year-old agreed a deal as head coach for 2026-27 after three seasons at Bournemouth, who finished sixth and reached Europe for the first time.

Richard Hughes, the sporting director who had brought Iraola to England in 2023, ran the talks and treated him as the only candidate. On September 5, Hughes stepped down as sporting director and joined Al-Hilal.

Liverpool Confirmed Iraola on June 4

Slot was removed on May 30. Liverpool wanted a new coach in place before the World Cup opened on June 11, and they beat that date by a week. Iraola flew in from San Sebastian on the Thursday, completed the paperwork, and was confirmed that evening on a two-year contract through 2028.

Fabrizio Romano posted an agreement in principle on June 2, two days before the club statement. Stuttgart’s Sebastian Hoeness and Lens’s Pierre Sage had been on an internal list. Neither was approached. Crystal Palace, AC Milan and Bayer Leverkusen had also chased the Basque. Liverpool got there first because Hughes already knew the man, and because Iraola wanted Anfield more than a second mid-table rebuild.

Really excited, really excited. Because obviously you know about Liverpool, you know that it’s a big club, a massive club, one of the biggest in the world. You don’t need a lot of things to get attracted by Liverpool. Liverpool is Liverpool.

Andoni Iraola, Liverpool head coach, to Liverpoolfc.com

He said the pull was the club, the crowd, and the chance to coach players who can win titles. That is the line he wanted on the record. The structure of the hire still ran through one executive.

The Sporting Director Who Hired Him Twice

Hughes was Bournemouth’s technical director when he backed Iraola to replace Gary O’Neil in 2023. They shared one season on the south coast. Hughes left for Anfield in June 2024, kept a home by the sea, and stayed in touch. When Fenway Sports Group decided Slot’s second year had gone wrong, Hughes did not open a wide search. He called the coach he had already trusted with a Premier League squad.

Iraola later told club media that it helps when the person across the table is someone you have worked with, then added that the project, not the reunion, was the attraction. Both things can be true. Hughes still made him the only call. He also delivered the news to Slot on the Saturday morning after a Friday meeting with Michael Edwards, then FSG’s chief executive of football, that John W. Henry, Tom Werner and Mike Gordon had signed off.

Hughes, 47, had been at Liverpool a little over two years. He oversaw the 2025 window that brought Alexander Isak for £125 million and Florian Wirtz for £116 million, a spend put at £415 million. The 2026 window, the one he stayed to finish because of Iraola, cost about £200 million and included Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain. Then he left.

I’ll always follow and support the club with great affection, and I wish everyone involved nothing but success for this season and beyond.

Richard Hughes, outgoing Liverpool sporting director, club statement

Mike Gordon thanked him for leading football operations “at the start of a period of change” and said the club respected his life choices. Al-Hilal confirmed him on September 6. Mark Burchill and Craig McKee, who had followed Hughes from Bournemouth in 2024, went with him. Liverpool said a successor process was under way. Iraola told reporters the news was not a surprise, that he still deals with the people who ran the summer window, and that he can only speak well of Hughes.

Slot Left With a Title and Fifth Place

The ownership statement on May 30 did not hide the logic. Slot had joined in June 2024, won the club’s 20th league title in his first season, been named LMA Manager of the Year, reached a Carabao Cup final and the last 16 of the Champions League. In 2025-26 he got Liverpool back into the Champions League and to the quarter-finals. He also finished fifth on 60 points, the lowest league total in a decade, and the football had gone flat enough for Anfield to groan at it.

FSG wrote that Slot would always be welcome, and that he had carried the club through the loss of Diogo Jota. The next sentence was the decision: the team’s trajectory, they said, was best addressed through a change of direction. They wanted a more aggressive, front-foot press. That is Iraola’s entire reputation.

Sipke Hulshoff, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Ruben Peeters, Slot’s assistants, left with him. The new coach was not being asked to inherit a staff. He was being asked to rebuild one, then a wide attack after Salah’s free-agent exit last summer, with Andy Robertson also gone at the end of his deal.

How Bournemouth Finished Sixth After Selling Its Spine

The Bournemouth blueprint now asked to scale is not a mystery. Iraola took a side that had finished 15th the year before he arrived and moved it, in order, to 12th, ninth and sixth. The last of those seasons ended with Europa League football and an 18-match unbeaten run, despite the regular stripping of the squad.

IRAOLA’S THREE PREMIER LEAGUE FINISHES

The defensive sales last summer were Dean Huijsen to Real Madrid, Milos Kerkez to Liverpool and Illia Zabarnyi to Paris Saint-Germain, a combined £144.5 million. Dango Ouattara went to Brentford. Antoine Semenyo joined Manchester City in January. Bournemouth still lost only seven league games. After Semenyo’s last appearance they did not lose again in the league, and they were still in a Champions League conversation on the final day before a 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest locked sixth and the Europa League.

THE PLAYERS HE LOST AND STILL FINISHED SIXTH

• Dean Huijsen: Centre-back, sold to Real Madrid in summer 2025.
• Milos Kerkez: Left-back, sold to Liverpool in the same window, now in Iraola’s own squad.
• Illia Zabarnyi: Centre-back, sold to Paris Saint-Germain.
• Antoine Semenyo: Forward, joined Manchester City in January and left an 18-game unbeaten run behind him.

That is why Hughes wanted him. Liverpool had just spent like a super club and still finished fifth. The coach they hired is the one who kept winning after the talent left. Marco Rose has since taken the Bournemouth job.

Four Coaches Followed Him North From Bournemouth

On July 2 the club confirmed the staff Iraola actually wanted. Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper arrived as first-team coaches. Pablo de la Torre came as assistant. Tom Webber took the tactical analyst post. All four had been with him at Bournemouth from 2023 to 2026. Elphick, a former Cherries captain who led two promotions and a lifelong Liverpool supporter, had already turned down Bristol City. De la Torre is on his fourth club with Iraola, from AEK Larnaca through Rayo Vallecano and Bournemouth.

THE BACKROOM HE BROUGHT FROM THE VITALITY

• Tommy Elphick: First-team coach, more than 400 senior appearances, academy then Gary O’Neil’s staff before Iraola kept him.
• Shaun Cooper: First-team coach, more than 200 Bournemouth games as a player, development-squad head coach from 2018.
• Pablo de la Torre: Assistant, with Iraola almost throughout his coaching career, listed as much more than a physical coach.
• Tom Webber: Tactical analyst, a decade in Bournemouth performance analysis, senior first-team analyst from 2024.

Iraola said it mattered that they came. He had lost a previous assistant, Inigo Perez, early at Bournemouth, and Elphick and Cooper filled the gap. Perez is now at Villarreal. The new Liverpool staff already know the press, the set pieces, and the way he wants the distances. That is the part of the hire that does not depend on Hughes still being in the building.

An Unbeaten Start, Then Hughes Left

The 2026-27 league season opened at St James’ Park on August 23. Newcastle went 2-1 up. Dominik Szoboszlai scored a penalty in the ninth minute of stoppage time for 2-2. A week later Nottingham Forest left Anfield with the same score. On September 4, at Ipswich, Alexander Isak scored twice in a 2-0 win, Iraola’s first as Liverpool head coach. Three league games, one win, two draws, six scored, four conceded, five points.

Jamie Carragher, on the Champions League coverage after the Atletico game, said he was delighted for the manager, that Liverpool had not lost, and that this was a proper opponent. Iraola, for his part, took the blame for the first-half shape. He had not expected a back five, he said, because Atletico had not used one this season, and it cost his side a little. They still came back to win 2-1 at Anfield on September 9, his first European night in the job. He praised “big character.” Barcola, starting, went off with cramp rather than a muscle tear.

THE 2026 CALENDAR AROUND THE HIRE

1. May 30, 2026: Slot departs with immediate effect after a fifth-place finish on 60 points.
2. June 2, 2026: Verbal agreement with Iraola, the only candidate Liverpool speak to.
3. June 4, 2026: Two-year appointment confirmed, seven days before the World Cup.
4. July 2, 2026: Elphick, Cooper, de la Torre and Webber are confirmed.
5. August 23, 2026: League debut ends 2-2 at Newcastle.
6. September 5, 2026: Hughes leaves; Al-Hilal confirms him the next day.
7. September 9, 2026: Liverpool win 2-1 against Atletico Madrid at Anfield.

The early joke when the hire leaked in June was that Iraola’s press would not live with passengers, Cody Gakpo named first in the replies. That reading is still the job description. The new objection, after Atletico, is simpler: a coach this intense still has to guess the other side’s shape on a European night, and he guessed wrong for a half. He has not lost in four matches across league and Champions League. The man who hired him twice is already at work in Riyadh.

Gordon now owns the next sporting-director decision. Iraola still has the summer’s recruitment group, Isak, Wirtz, Barcola, Kerkez, and a staff that already speaks his language. The bet Hughes placed in June is no longer Hughes’s to sit with.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool contract?

It is a two-year deal running through the 2027-28 season, shorter than Liverpool’s recent head-coach contracts and in line with the terms he asked for at Rayo Vallecano and Bournemouth. The club’s June 4 announcement did not print the length; the term was confirmed as his request rather than a club limit.

What did Iraola win as a coach before Liverpool?

His only senior trophy is the Cypriot Super Cup with AEK Larnaca in 2018, his first job after retiring. He then took Mirandes in Spain’s second division, led Rayo Vallecano to La Liga promotion in 2020-21, and improved Bournemouth’s league placing in each of three Premier League seasons without adding a cup.

Who replaced Iraola at Bournemouth?

Marco Rose, formerly of Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig, was named Bournemouth head coach after Iraola’s contract expired at the end of 2025-26. Rose inherits the club’s first Europa League campaign and a squad rebuilt from the sales that funded Iraola’s last season.

What was Iraola’s playing career?

He made more than 500 appearances as a right-back for Athletic Club across 12 seasons, won seven caps for Spain, and finished at New York City FC in 2015-16. He is from Usurbil, near San Sebastian, and was born on 22 June 1982, which made him 43 when Liverpool appointed him.