Plettenberg says that Filipe Luis was Leverkusenās first choice, but he rejected them to join Monaco. Meetings then took place with Iraola, but both parties were aware that the Liverpool job might open up (which might be Iraolaās first choice out of current realistic ones).
Maybe itās just me but I love a bit of egomaniac in footie. The Mourinhos, Fergies, Van Gaals and yes, Klopp too (he was just a nice one). They get results and even big name players donāt dare mess with them
They all had issues inside (from what we know), that is almost impossible to prevent. It doesnāt have to be necessarily towards the manager/head coach. But yeah, how you deal with it, itās also a quality.
Arteta spoke recently about giving his leaders responsibility to be firefighters in the dressing room. The less he has on his table in terms of such issues to deal with, the better for all. Some things do stay in the dressing room and between players.
I just find his football rather dull.
Did someone mention science?
It was interesting how prominently he featured in the Salah farewell video, given his relatively short time at the club
I think the video was recorded during the Legends match. Thiago was there for the first time I believe?
I donāt think so, he had a (tax?) situation where he had to go back from Spain to the UK before he could re-join Barca in now already his ex-role. Think he was seen at a couple of games in the stands.
Donāt know if this was posted, but Iraolaās farewell interview with Bournemouth. Probably the newest material online of him speaking.
TAA is a bit young to go into coachingā¦
Iāve read Iraola is tipped to be the favorite. Not sure how I feel about this.
I know he did a decent job with Bournemouth but can he translate his success with a smaller midtable team to a huge team like Liverpool with ambitions to compete for the title and multiple trophies including the Champions League? How would you react if he got the job?
An assist against United seals the deal
In fact, Bournemouth arenāt a mid-table club, or at least, shouldnāt be. If you look at their annual budget, they should be every season one of the relegation candidates. As @Sweeting pointed out, they are 18th in the league in that regard. They have been extremely well-managed, so have been able to avoid the drop since years. But Iraola, since he came in, lifted them to a wholly new level, while letting them play attacking football. Imho, he has done stellar work down there, worthy to be looked at by big clubs like ours.
Yeahā¦Iām not convincedā¦
So hereās the thing: itās either a coach with Premier League experience but no Champions League experience yet, or one with Champions League experience but no Premier League experience. Which is better?
Edit
There might be a few who have both, but either we donāt want them, or we canāt get them.
We need someone with a bit of gumptionā¦fightā¦personalityā¦
Iraola coaching
My favourite bit of this Iraola video - āWe only know how to play one way and it is aggressive. Itās how I feel safe. We are staying aggressive even when we are ahead. I donāt like to pass the ball around at the back and do this sort of thing because I donāt feel safe like that. We play the same throughout the game because thatās our best way.ā