On Friday, Arne Slot was Liverpool’s head coach and Crystal Palace were trying to convince former Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola to take charge. A day later, Slot was out and Liverpool were widely reported to have Iraola set out as their own top target and much of Sunday was focused on that developing story.
As if in confirmation of that, news from Palace’s connected journalists today has them accepting that they can’t compete with Liverpool in this space and fully moving on from Iraola. In his place,
they have made Peirre Sage their new top managerial target and the BBC are reporting that they will now open talks with him.
Sage was impressive last season with Lens as the underdog club finished a surprise second in Ligue 1 and managed to still be in the title race with Paris Saint-Germain well into the spring, but it was only Sage’s third season as a top flight manager—and at his first stop he was sacked after a year-and-a-half by Lyon.
For their part, Liverpool are reported to have themselves been impressed by Sage’s work this past season as well as by that of Sebastian Hoeneß at Stuttgart, but Iraola is believed to have been the clear favourite to take over from the moment it became clear that the club would be moving on from Slot this summer.
