Iraola Faces Contract Dilemma at Liverpool
Andoni Iraola hasn’t even taken charge of a game at Anfield, yet a familiar Liverpool problem is already waiting for him at the door.
The Basque coach, unveiled on Thursday on a two-year deal after an eye-catching spell at Bournemouth, walks into a club still glowing from a recent Premier League title but scarred by what followed. Arne Slot’s reign collapsed in its second season. The football dipped, the mood soured, and the dressing room drifted. Now Iraola inherits not just a team, but a contract minefield that has tripped Liverpool up before.
Konaté goes, and he may not be the last
The first blow has already landed. Ibrahima Konaté, a key defender under Slot, is gone. Liverpool confirmed last week that the Frenchman would leave at the end of his deal this summer after negotiations over fresh terms broke down. Konaté then made it official himself, saying his goodbyes on social media and closing the book on his Anfield career as a free agent.
For a club that prides itself on sharp recruitment and smart planning, allowing a first-choice centre-back to walk for nothing is a bruising start to a new era. And the warning lights are flashing again.
Because Konaté might only be the start.
Six contracts, one ticking clock
Over the next 12 months, six more first‑team players are heading towards the same cliff edge. Virgil van Dijk. Curtis Jones. Alisson Becker. Joe Gomez. Wataru Endo. Stefan Bajcetic. All out of contract next summer as it stands.
If none of them sign new deals, they follow Konaté out of the door for free.
For Iraola, that creates an immediate dilemma. How do you build a long‑term project when you don’t know which of your core players will still be here in a year? How do you shape a dressing room when some of its most influential figures might already have one foot out?
For Liverpool’s hierarchy, the problem is just as stark. Those six players carry a combined transfer value of around £74 million, according to transfermarkt. Letting that level of value evaporate would be another brutal hit to a club that has long relied on smart sales and reinvestment to stay competitive at the top.
A problem Liverpool should have seen coming
This isn’t new. Liverpool have been here before, and too often recently.
Key players have been allowed to run down their contracts, their market value shrinking with every month that passes. Sell too late, and the fee is slashed. Wait even longer, and the player leaves for nothing. The pattern has become a theme rather than an exception.
Last season underlined it. The futures of Van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold hovered over the campaign, an unwelcome subplot that never quite went away. It distracted, it unsettled, and it dragged on.
In the end, only Alexander-Arnold departed in the summer of 2025, and even that exit stung. The club managed to claw back a fee by agreeing his move to Real Madrid before he hit free agency, but it was a fraction of what he might once have commanded. Anfield’s anger was loud and raw.
Salah and Van Dijk stayed, though on short-term deals that underlined where the power lay. The players, not the club, dictated the terms. Liverpool bent rather than broke, just to keep them in red a little longer.
Now the same dynamic looms again.
Iraola’s first big test
Iraola’s footballing ideas are clear. High energy. Aggression. Front-foot pressing. But before he can fully impose that on the pitch, he needs clarity off it.
He must sit down with Liverpool’s decision‑makers and draw some hard lines. Who forms the spine of his project? Who is non‑negotiable? Who can be sold now, while their value still holds, to prevent another Konaté situation?
Van Dijk, the captain and defensive talisman, heads that list of questions. Alisson, one of the best goalkeepers in the world, is another cornerstone. Gomez, a versatile defender; Jones, a homegrown midfielder; Endo, the steadying presence in the middle; Bajcetic, the gifted youngster with his career ahead of him. Each case is different. Each one matters.
The club cannot keep drifting towards deadlines and hoping loyalty fills the gaps that planning should cover. Iraola’s job is to win matches. But at Liverpool, right now, his first victory might have to come in the boardroom.
If the new head coach and the Anfield hierarchy get these calls wrong over the next few months, the cost won’t just be measured in lost transfer fees. It will be written into the very shape of the squad he’s trying to build.
