LIVERPOOL sacked manager Arne Slot on Saturday and expect to announce Andoni Iraola as his replacement today.
Blink and you’ll miss the transition.
Celtic fired Wilfried Nancy on January 5 – two days after the derby debacle – and you and I are still awaiting the Frenchman’s permanent successor.
We’ve had five months of rampant speculation on the identity of the man who would take over from Martin O’Neill, who performed miracles during his second stint as interim gaffer after initially answering the club’s SOS in late October to step in for the hastily departing Brendan Rodgers.
That’s the same Brendan Rodgers who reassured the Celtic support he would be “200 per cent certain” to be in charge of the team for the final 12 months of his three-year contract.
The promise was made amid the euphoria on Tayside on the Saturday afternoon of April 26 as the club’s followers basked in the afterglow of a 5-0 triumph over Dundee United that sealed a fourth successive crown.
Six months later and the Irishman was gone.
FLAG HAPPY…Brendan Rodgers shows off his skills as he celebrates Celtic’s 5-0 win over Dundee United at Tannadice in April 2025 that sealed the club’s fifth successive title. The mood changed a few months later.
Aah, dear reader, the wonderful twists and turns of the beautiful game. Today, Rodgers is free to concentrate on all things Al Qadsiah whose average home attendance is 9,000 in the Saudi Pro League.
The last time I could be bothered to look, he had won 13 of his 19 games since being installed in mid-December.
Like Slot, he is a former Liverpool manager. Like Slot, he was fired. Unlike Slot, he never won the title.
To be fair to Rodgers, he was never handed the transfer treasure chest that was available to the one-time Feyenoord head coach.
Incidentally, it may interest you to know Slot was the first choice to become Spurs’ new boss in the summer of 2023. He knocked back their advances to remain at the Rotterdam club and the Londoners switched their focus to a bloke doing wonders in the east end of Glasgow.
And, thus, Ange Postecoglou was spirited across the border.
And Celtic brought in a guy called Rodgers as his successor to set in motion the rollercoaster that came so perilously close to coming off the rails during a turbulent period in which O’Neill somehow contrived to guide the team to a league and Cup double, so implausible at one stage.
SEEING DOUBLE…Ange Postecoglou with one of the two titles he won at Celtic.
Getting back to the changing of the guard on Merseyside, I reckon it would be a reasonable bet to say the Anfield hierarchy did not have Slot in their crosshairs last summer.
After all, the Dutchman had just delivered the Premier title in his debut campaign and everything was hunky dory among the Kopites.
Slot was given the keys to the kingdom and was allowed to spend over £300MILLION on three forwards – Hugo Ekitike, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz – but none hit the ground running and the Reds toppled from pole position to fifth in a bewilderingly short period of time.
The team limped in a chasm of 25 points adrift of champions Arsenal and suffered 20 defeats in all competitions.
Exit Slot. Enter Iraola.
PRIZE GUY…Martin O’Neill with his fourth title at Celtic.
I believe there will be a complete overhaul in the Liverpool coaching system with the former Bournemouth boss coach eager to continue working with his trusted four-man backroom team of Pablo de la Torre, Tommy Elphick, Shaun Cooper and Tom Webber.
All things considered, that is a fair old transformation.
And, yet, the Merseyside club are confident of rubberstamping the employment of five new arrivals at some stage today.
By anyone’s standards, that is impressive decision-making. Not a hint of procrastination as the jigsaw puzzle is put back together again with commendable haste.
Meanwhile, in the east end of Glasgow, we still await the puff of white smoke.
Martin O’Neill? Robbie Keane? Craig Bellamy? Roberto Martinez? Uncle Tom Cobley?
You might as well throw in the name of Jurgen ‘The Face of Trivago’ Klopp to make it even more interesting.
The Premiership is scheduled to kick off on the weekend of August 1/2.
ALEX GORDON
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