On Saturday, Liverpool announced that the club would be parting ways with head coach Arne Slot following a highly disappointing 2025-26 campaign and a steady regression of the side over the past 18 months. Already there is speculation that Andoni Iraola will be the Reds’ next manager.
Taken at face value, it suggests that the decision by Liverpool to move on from Slot was a long time coming. Iraola, after all, announced he was leaving Bournemouth six weeks ago—and he has since rebuffed approaches
from Crystal Palace and clubs in Italy including, if rumours are to be believed, AC Milan.
Now, there’s talk that Slot himself may already have his next job lined up with word out of Italy that Milan have identified Slot as their top managerial target and that the manager would be likely to accept if they moved to make the Dutch trainer their replacement for Massimiliano Allegri.
In addition to Iraola and now Slot, Milan have also been linked to departing Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner and to current United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino. It’s a lengthy list of names that perhaps makes it harder to take the sudden focus on Slot slightly harder to take seriously.
Still, if Slot joining Milan does in fact come to pass quickly following his departure from Liverpool, it would suggest just as with Iraola appearing to have been lined up already to that the job with the Reds that Slot’s departure has been a known thing for all parties going back some time.
