Iraola Addresses Liverpool’s Transfer Issues Ahead of Season Opener

Liverpool head to Newcastle on Sunday with a new manager, a reshaped squad – and a glaring problem out wide that Andoni Iraola is no longer interested in disguising.

The Spaniard has been blunt about what he wants and when he wanted it. The arrivals of Jeremy Jacquet, Victor Munoz and Ronald Araujo have freshened parts of the team, but they have not masked the holes left by Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate. For a club used to rolling into August fully armed, this feels like a squad still being assembled on the runway.

“As a manager, it's an easy one for me, I wanted the players from the first day on July 13,” Iraola told reporters before the trip to St James’ Park. “I wanted everyone here, all the positions doubled with top-level players. But you understand how the competition works.”

The reality is different. The market is still open, the games are starting, and Liverpool are trying to do both jobs at once: win now and build for later.

“The market is open when you start the competition so we have to adapt as coaches to this situation,” he said. “There are certain situations that for me are clear, especially on the wing because we don't have enough players specifically to play in those positions. In other positions we have to be open-minded in the market to see situations that honestly can improve our team.”

That shortage out wide has defined Liverpool’s final stretch of the window. The club are actively hunting two wide attackers, pushing hard for Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola and testing Brighton with a £50 million bid for Yankuba Minteh that has already been rejected. Names swirl, prices rise, and the clock ticks.

Iraola, though, has little time for the noise that comes with it.

“I hate these 10 days that we have because there is a lot of uncertainty, not just in Liverpool but everywhere,” he admitted. “But we have to not spend too much time thinking about these things.”

Pressed on Barcola and Minteh specifically, the former Bournemouth head coach shut the door. No hints, no nudges, no chance of being dragged into a tapping-up row with the window at full tilt.

While the recruitment team wrestle with targets and fees, another symbol of Liverpool’s transition is about to walk out of the door. Curtis Jones, an academy graduate who grew up with the club, is on the verge of a £30 million move to Serie A champions Inter. It is a big decision for a player who loves Anfield – and one Iraola backs.

“I talked to him in the first or second training day,” the manager revealed. “I value him a lot as a player, he loves this club, but I understood probably what the outcome would be in the end. He was coming from some years in the same position.”

Jones leaves just weeks after Robertson’s departure to Tottenham, another pillar of the previous era gone. With the Scot’s exit, the vice-captaincy fell vacant and the leadership structure needed a rethink.

Iraola has moved quickly. Virgil van Dijk remains captain, but he will now be supported by a new leadership group: Alisson Becker, Dominik Szoboszlai and Joe Gomez. It is a blend of experience, influence and dressing-room weight – with one important caveat.

The armband, Iraola explained, cannot realistically live on his goalkeeper’s arm.

“With the new rule I think there is a big limitation if a 'keeper wears the armband,” he said. “Because if something happens in the opposition box the referee has to explain to the captains what's happening, all the decisions. I had one season with Neto in Bournemouth and then you have to start every game to say a different player that can act as a captain, and this is not viable.”

Alisson’s status inside the squad, though, is not in question.

“But I wanted Alisson to feel like we value him,” Iraola added. “I've had enough time and we will have more time to know each other, but I had to explain the decision about the armband to him. Unfortunately, they are putting the rules in a way that there is a lot of disadvantages to having a keeper as a captain.”

So Liverpool arrive at the opening weekend in a curious state: a new manager demanding wingers he does not yet have, a homegrown midfielder on the brink of Italy, a vice-captain’s seat reshaped around a goalkeeper who cannot wear the band, and a transfer window that refuses to quieten.

The season starts at Newcastle. The real test is whether Liverpool can keep their balance while the ground is still shifting beneath them.