Liverpool's Season Ends Amidst Uncertainty and Departures
Liverpool edge towards the end of a season that promised far more than it delivered with the odd mix of tension and inevitability that only football can produce.
Beat Brentford at Anfield on Sunday, or even just avoid defeat, and Arne Slot’s side will lock in fifth place and a return to the Champions League. Even a slip would need a collapse of freakish proportions: Bournemouth must overturn a six-goal deficit at Nottingham Forest to deny them.
So the numbers look comfortable. The mood does not.
Because once the final whistle blows this weekend, Liverpool step into a summer that could reshape the club as profoundly as any in the last decade. Mohamed Salah is leaving. Andy Robertson is leaving. Two pillars of the Jürgen Klopp era, two players who defined the club’s modern identity, gone after nine years on Merseyside.
And all of that unfolds against a backdrop of doubt over whether Slot will even be the man trusted to build the next version of Liverpool.
Iraola in the frame as Slot faces uncertainty
For weeks, the line from Liverpool has been consistent: Slot stays. One poor, draining season, yes, but not enough to rip up a long-term plan.
Now that certainty is being nudged.
Foot Mercato report that Fenway Sports Group are at least exploring the idea of a U-turn, sounding out potential successors in case they decide the Dutchman is not the coach to lead the reset. Xabi Alonso, long admired at Anfield and widely viewed as a natural fit, briefly entered that conversation before choosing Chelsea instead.
With Alonso off the table, another name has surged forward: Andoni Iraola.
According to the French outlet, new sporting director Richard Hughes is actively pursuing the Bournemouth manager, who is set to leave the south-coast club at the end of the season. It is a move that would carry its own logic. Hughes was the executive who brought Iraola to Bournemouth three years ago, betting on a progressive, front-foot coach to drag the club away from the bottom and into something more ambitious.
That bet has paid out handsomely.
Bournemouth sit sixth in the Premier League, riding a 17-match unbeaten run – the longest such streak in the top flight this season. Iraola has turned a side many tipped for a relegation scrap into one of the league’s most awkward, energetic opponents, and his work has not gone unnoticed. He will not be short of offers when he walks away this summer.
Liverpool, if they do move, would arrive with an advantage. Hughes knows Iraola, knows how he works, knows how to build around him. The prospect of a reunion is obvious.
Yet the picture is far from settled. The Athletic maintain that Liverpool’s stance on Slot has not changed, that the intention remains to continue with him into next season. For now, the club stands publicly by its man.
The whispers, though, have started. And at a club of Liverpool’s size, whispers rarely stay quiet for long.
Robertson lifts the lid on a season that broke hearts
While the boardroom ponders the future, one of Liverpool’s longest-serving players has offered a raw account of what went wrong on the pitch.
Speaking to Ian Wright on The Overlap, Andy Robertson did not hide from the scale of the drop-off. He did, however, insist that the story of this campaign cannot be told without acknowledging the emotional weight the squad carried.
The 32-year-old revealed how the tragic death of Diogo Jota shattered the dressing room during their title defence.
“What happened in the summer with Diogo Jota… nobody could have prepared us for that,” Robertson said. “The first time I saw my teammates again after the trophy parade was on the way to one of our mate's funeral.
“And I don't want to use this as an excuse, but we cannot hide away from this. It's been tough, and we can't hide away from this. Diogo Jota was one of our best mates.”
Those are not the words of a player searching for alibis. They are the words of a man trying to explain why a group that had scaled such heights suddenly looked drained of the same relentless edge.
Robertson also pointed to the loss of another cornerstone of the Klopp era. Trent Alexander-Arnold’s move to Real Madrid ripped out not just a world-class right-back but a voice and a presence that had grown into the fabric of the dressing room.
“I think obviously we’ve missed him as a player, there’s no doubt about that,” Robertson admitted. “We’ve missed him as a character as well. But he’s went on to try something new and sometimes you just have to take your hat off to that.”
Between personal grief and the departure of key figures, Liverpool’s season became a grind. The tactical issues and the dropped points are there on the table, but Robertson’s words pull back the curtain on the human cost behind the statistics.
The immediate job is simple: finish the season, secure Champions League football, give Salah and Robertson a farewell that matches their contribution.
What comes next is anything but simple. A new forward line without Salah. A new left flank without Robertson. A defence still adjusting to life without Alexander-Arnold. And, perhaps, a new man in the dugout if the interest in Iraola hardens into something more concrete.
Liverpool stand on the edge of an era’s end. The only real question now is what kind of team emerges from the rubble of this one.
