Andoni Iraola is now in charge at Liverpool, but his management career began in Cyprus with AEK Larnaca and ended in the sack. Seven years ago, he was dismissed from that first job after a winless run in the Cypriot top division.
Iraola learned from the experience and rebuilt his career in Spain with Mirandes before impressing at Rayo Vallecano and Bournemouth, which earned him his opportunity at Anfield. Even so, it must be curious for his old colleagues to watch his rise.
Were there any believers on that day in January when Larnaca drew 2-2 at home to Ermis Aradippou, the team that would go on to finish bottom of the table? The result extended their run of league games without a win to six, and Iraola paid the price with his job.
Were there clues beyond the results that Iraola was destined for bigger things, and that he was simply the victim of a trigger-happy culture at the Cypriot club? David Catala, who played under him at Larnaca, including in that final game, says he did see promising signs.
“He already had very clear ideas of what he wanted,” Catala says. “You saw it and, for sure, all the players were speaking about how he was going to become a fantastic coach. But to reach this level? To say that he would be at Liverpool? That is a big claim.”
A promising start
Iraola had spent his entire playing career in Europe at Athletic Club, before a brief spell in the United States with New York City. His first venture into management with Larnaca took him outside his comfort zone, although there was a Spanish contingent at the club.
His initial impact was impressive. He navigated three rounds of qualifying to reach the Europa League group stage, with wins over Dundalk, Sturm Graz and Trencin. Just as importantly, the players at Larnaca readily embraced his ideas.
“To be in the Europa League for a club in Cyprus was amazing,” Catala explains. “And the work that he did was good. These were the same ideas that he wants at Liverpool, actually, pressing high and wanting to be very aggressive with and without the ball.”
That approach was particularly rare in Cyprus at the time. “The rhythm of the game there was very slow. I was able to play there until I was 38 years old because that rhythm was not so high.” Iraola had a different vision of the game, one he had learned under Marcelo Bielsa in Bilbao.
Catala explains: “Everything was more explosive with him, more rhythm, more intensity. You saw how Marcelo did it with Athletic Club. I remember sometimes it was like that for us. Crazy things like following man-to-man all over the pitch. That was crazy as players.”
He now recognises that it was a glimpse of the future of the game. “Football has gone in that direction. The way you have to press. It changed the mentality of the players.” Iraola, Catala believes, even changed the game in the country. “He changed a little bit the rhythm of the league in Cyprus.”
The unravelling
For a while, it worked. At the start of December, 10 games into the season, Larnaca were second in the table behind Limassol, the only team to beat them in that period. Iraola’s side were actually ahead of the six-time reigning champions and eventual title winners, APOEL.
But it unravelled quickly. A 5-1 home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in Europe sat between a trio of away trips on the island that yielded no wins. A home defeat by the odd goal then increased the pressure before the brief Christmas break.
A loss away to Omonia, followed by the draw against strugglers Ermis, sealed his fate. There were some tweaks to the formation, but nothing major. “He did not change too much in terms of his thinking about the way of playing against different teams,” Catala recalls.
The real lesson was that, even in an environment far from the spotlight that Iraola had known as a player, pressure arrives quickly in football. “If you are not getting results, it is difficult to have the trust of the owners.”
Catala explains: “Cyprus is very difficult for coaches, and especially for young coaches, because the owners of the football clubs, they are very passionate. And at the moment that you are not getting the results, they sack the coach like they are just peanuts.
“As soon as you lose games, especially against the lower teams, immediately the fans are speaking with the owner and the owner is going crazy. You cannot have the stability that maybe you need when you are a young coach. This is what happened to Andoni.”
Lessons learned
Catala, who would go on to manage Larnaca himself and lasted a little longer than Iraola, has tried to take lessons from his old coach. He believes Iraola will also have benefited from the experience. “It was still a good choice to start there,” he insists.
“Cyprus is not an easy place for anyone to work but it is a good place for a young coach to start their journey. He had the opportunity to coach a team in the Europa League, for example. Unfortunately, football everywhere is now very unstable for all coaches.
“It was a short period. But he would have learned many things from his experience in Cyprus about how to manage situations. It was his first job, you have to take something from that. For sure, he has improved a lot since then and he has developed himself.”
As for the leap to Liverpool, Catala admits he is pleased for his former coach. “I am happy for him. If you look at the last years, you can see that he is obviously a fantastic coach. I cannot say that I did not expect it, but it is a little bit of a surprise.” From the sack at Larnaca to Anfield, the journey has been a remarkable one.