Alexis Mac Allister's Future: Iraola's Stance on Transfers
Andoni Iraola knows exactly what he has in Alexis Mac Allister – and exactly what he stands to lose.
The Liverpool midfielder, fresh from a season in which he emerged as one of the club’s standout performers and a World Cup finalist with Argentina, has become a familiar name in the Madrid rumour mill. Two years remain on his contract, but that hasn’t stopped the speculation.
Iraola, though, is in no mood to play the selling manager.
“Alexis has been one of the best players of the club last year and has done a very good World Cup,” he said, laying out his position with little room for doubt. Interest from elsewhere? Expected. Acceptable? Not really. “It is normal that other clubs want our best players, our good players, it always happens in other markets. But I want to, also as other clubs want, I want to keep my good players.”
That last line tells the story. He may admire the market, but he doesn’t want to feed it.
Mac Allister is due to rejoin the squad after the break, his workload carefully managed after going all the way to the World Cup final. His return will be a timely boost, because Liverpool are a squad in transition and the gaps are not small ones.
Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate have gone. Three pillars of recent seasons, three positions ripped out of the first-team structure. Iraola did not try to dress it up. He spoke openly about the “obvious” need for reinforcements, especially out wide.
The search for a winger has already moved to the top of the recruitment agenda. No coyness, no vague talk about “profiles”. Just a clear need.
“I think it is difficult to say a number,” Iraola admitted when asked how many signings he wants. “When the market is open, you have to be always open to new options to improve the squad.
“There are obvious situations where we need to sign players. Winger for example, we definitely need to sign a winger, but there are other situations where we will have to analyse what the market gives you, what is the cost, how we also see the players we have.”
So the picture is split. One part non-negotiable – a wide player must arrive. The rest, more fluid, shaped by opportunity, price and the development of those already inside the building.
Injuries complicate everything. Iraola spoke of “tricky positions” where key players are sidelined but still trusted. That trust buys them time, but not forever. Recruitment, he hinted, will hinge on how quickly those players make it back to full training.
“We have some tricky positions where we have injured players that we trust, but it is still not the ideal situation, so it will depend on a lot of things,” he explained. It’s a manager’s balancing act: patience with the injured, pragmatism in the market.
All of this is unfolding thousands of miles from Anfield.
Liverpool are currently in the United States on their Premier League pre-season tour, a crucial stretch for Iraola as he stamps his ideas onto a reshaped dressing room. The American leg is not just about fitness. It is an audition, an education and a live laboratory rolled into one.
New signings Jeremy Jacquet and Victor Munoz are being folded into the group, learning the demands and tempo of their new manager. Young players, too, are under the microscope as the staff assess who is ready to stay and who might be better served by a move or a loan.
The schedule is busy enough: Sunderland, Leeds United and Wrexham await, each game another chance to test combinations, to see who adapts and who struggles. Somewhere in that mix, the recruitment team will sharpen their decisions on where to push hardest before the window closes.
And then there is Mac Allister, the World Cup finalist whose name will not leave Madrid’s orbit. He is set to rejoin after the break, but the exact timing of his return to full pre-season work remains unclear.
When he does walk back into the camp, he will find a club that has changed around him – big names gone, new faces in, a manager building something different. The question is whether Liverpool can build it quickly enough, and convincingly enough, to ensure their midfield metronome sees his future on Merseyside rather than in Madrid.
