Liverpool 2027: Iraola's Rebuild as Old Guard Exits

Andoni Iraola has barely settled into the Liverpool job, but the outlines of his 2026/27 squad are already starting to sharpen. Some of the club’s biggest names are drifting towards the exit. A cluster of teenagers are lining up at the door. And one of last season’s key stop-gaps now looks like a short-term chapter rather than a long-term pillar.

At the heart of it all sits Wataru Endo.

Endo on the Outside

Endo watched the entire Carabao Cup win over Tottenham Hotspur from the bench. Not injured. Just unused. It was a small detail, but it spoke loudly.

The 33-year-old has not played a minute under Iraola. He didn’t even make Liverpool’s Champions League squad this month. With his contract expiring at the end of the season, the clock is ticking on his Anfield stay.

Iraola has tried to strike a respectful tone.

“Wata lost quite a lot of the pre-season,” he said last week. “He is still not at his best but he is training very well.

“The problem is in front of him in his position I have a lot of players. He is competing against a lot of players.

“We are giving minutes to Trey, Ryan, Alexis and Dom, players that I am selecting right now. But Wata is definitely a player that I like and for sure he will have his moments.”

Those “moments” did not arrive against Spurs. Instead, Trey Nyoni and James McConnell both started ahead of him, flanking Alexis Mac Allister in midfield. When Iraola needed fresh legs, he turned to Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch, not the veteran Japan international.

The message is clear. Just as Lewis Koumas has nudged ahead of Federico Chiesa in the attacking hierarchy, the kids are being pushed to the front of the queue. Fringe seniors are being eased towards the back.

Endo’s game-time had already dipped under Arne Slot. Under Iraola, the pattern looks even harsher. He turns 34 in February and, as it stands, will leave on a free when his deal runs out. Reports this week have even suggested Liverpool could cash in during January to bank a final fee. Either way, the direction of travel is obvious.

And he is far from alone.

Contracts Running Down, Icons at a Crossroads

As things stand, Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker, Joe Gomez and Kostas Tsimikas are all out of contract next summer. So is Endo. Back-up goalkeeper Harvey Davies is also listed as expiring, according to Transfermarkt.

Liverpool could still move to tie some of them down. They have that option. But on paper, the club is currently staring at the possibility of losing its captain, its first-choice goalkeeper, a long-serving defender and its senior left-back in the same window.

Ronald Araujo’s loan from Barcelona is also due to end next summer. The Reds hold a £47m purchase option on the Uruguayan centre-back. Trigger it, and he becomes a core part of the rebuild. Let it lapse, and another senior slot opens up.

By the time the 2026/27 season kicks off, Iraola’s squad could be almost unrecognisable from the one he inherited.

The First Deals of 2027

Liverpool are not waiting around for that moment to arrive. Three signings for 2027 are already locked in.

Djylian N’Guessan will officially become a Liverpool player in January after the club agreed a €5m deal with Saint-Etienne. The 18-year-old forward is on loan at Stade Brest and is scheduled to finish the season there before physically linking up with the Reds, even though the paperwork will say he belongs to Liverpool from January.

Lucca Brughmans is also on his way. The club have struck a £30m agreement with KRC Genk for the Belgian goalkeeper. The teenager is currently due to complete the campaign in Belgium, but Liverpool have the option to bring him to Anfield in January if they wish.

Then comes Samuel Martinez. The Colombian playmaker will join from Atletico Nacional in a £750,000 deal once he turns 18 next year.

There is also a familiar name pencilled in for 2027. Liverpool hold a £55m option to re-sign Jarell Quansah from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of that year. The ECHO understands the England centre-half has already agreed personal terms on an Anfield contract, should the club decide to activate that clause.

The pipeline is clear: young, mouldable, high-upside talent, already earmarked to feed directly into Iraola’s plans.

Loan Army Coming Home

Next summer will also see a wave of returning loanees.

Harvey Elliott is the headline act. His season-long loan at Valencia will end, and he is under contract at Anfield until 2028. Under a coach who has already shown he trusts youth, Elliott’s reintroduction could be one of the defining stories of the summer.

Ifeanyi Ndukwe is now eligible for a work permit after making his debut for Levante. Liverpool can recall the Austrian in January, or let him finish the season in La Liga before bringing him back to Merseyside.

Armin Pecsi and Kieran Morrison will also return from TSV Hartberg and Sheffield Wednesday respectively. Calvin Ramsay, though, will not be coming back into the fold. His loan at St Mirren runs alongside the final year of his Liverpool contract, and he is set to leave as a free agent.

Elsewhere, Calum Scanlon and Keyrol Figueroa are on season-long loans at Cardiff City and Port Vale. Amara Nallo, Kornel Misciur and Kyle Kelly are out at HJK, Leek Town and Forest Green Rovers until the new year. Fabian Mrozek is with FC Cincinnati, where the MLS club hold an option to sign him permanently.

Some of these names will be squad padding. Some will be sold. One or two might surprise Iraola in pre-season. But they all feed into a simple reality: the 2026/27 squad will be built from more than just the current first team.

Kids Who No Longer Count as Kids

There is also a technical twist to the rebuild. From next season, any player born before January 1, 2006 must be registered in Liverpool’s Premier League and European squads if they are to feature.

That means Jeremy Jacquet, Lewis Koumas, Pecsi and Michael Laffey will no longer qualify as Under-21s. Scanlon and Kelly fall into the same category. They move from “bonus” List B options into full senior slots.

Squad management gets tighter. Every decision has more weight.

Homegrown Puzzle

The homegrown picture is already interesting.

Conor Bradley, Elliott, James McConnell, Koumas, Vitezslav Jaros, Freddie Woodman and Jeremie Frimpong are all contracted for next season and would count towards the homegrown quota. The first five are club-trained for European competition, with Woodman and Frimpong classed as association-trained.

Luke Chambers, Scanlon, Kaide Gordon, Isaac Mabaya, Owen Beck, Laffey and Kelly would also need to be registered if they remain on the books.

As things stand, Gomez and Davies are on course to leave as free agents. Transfermarkt also lists Chambers and Gordon as out of contract.

If those expiries hold, Liverpool’s homegrown core shifts again, with more responsibility falling on the likes of Bradley, Elliott and McConnell to carry the local thread into a new era.

Non-Homegrown Squeeze and Big Names Under Scrutiny

Right now, Liverpool fill all 17 non-homegrown spots for the 2026/27 season. That will change if Van Dijk, Alisson, Endo and Tsimikas all depart at the end of their deals. Araujo’s situation is another lever; if he returns to Barcelona, a further slot opens up.

Chiesa looks like an obvious candidate to move on. His contract runs until 2028, but he has never been more than a bit-part figure at Anfield.

Mac Allister’s future is also uncertain. The Argentina international has spoken publicly about being told the club are not currently in a position to offer him a new deal. That kind of admission rarely quietens speculation.

Cody Gakpo is another to watch. He almost left in the summer amid interest from Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. Those links are unlikely to disappear if his role diminishes or if Liverpool look to reshape their attack.

Giorgi Mamardashvili has also been mentioned in connection with a possible move away.

For now, Ndukwe and Brughmans would still count as Under-21s and would not need to be registered for Premier League duty. To use them in Europe, though, Liverpool would have to find room in the senior List A, as neither qualifies for List B.

Strip the scenario back to its simplest form: assume all out-of-contract players leave and Araujo signs permanently. In that case, Liverpool would have 15 senior non-homegrown players, with Jacquet and Pecsi no longer eligible as Under-21s. Ndukwe and Brughmans could then, in theory, fill the final two European berths.

But that is just one version of the future. Transfer windows rarely stay that neat.

The 2026/27 Skeleton Squad

Against that backdrop, the possible shape of Liverpool’s 2026/27 group, as things stand, looks like this:

• Goalkeepers: Giorgi Mamardashvili, Freddie Woodman (HG), Vitezslav Jaros (HG), Armin Pecsi, Lucca Brughmans (U21)*.
• Defenders: Jeremy Jacquet, Milos Kerkez, Conor Bradley (HG), Leoni (U21), Jeremie Frimpong (HG), Ronald Araujo, Calum Scanlon (HG), Owen Beck (HG), Ifeanyi Ndukwe (U21)*.
• Midfielders: Florian Wirtz, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Harvey Elliott (HG), Ryan Gravenberch, Trey Nyoni (U21), James McConnell (HG).

It is a framework, not a finished article. No forwards are listed in that snapshot, and there are obvious gaps that future business will have to fill. But the direction is unmistakable: younger, faster, more flexible, with academy products and smart scouting threaded through the spine.

The old guard may yet sign new deals. Some of the loanees may never kick a ball for the first team. A single big sale could change everything.

But as Iraola looks towards 2026/27, one truth is already staring back at him: this will be his Liverpool, not a hand-me-down from eras gone by.