We’re a little under a month removed from the appointment of Andoni Iraola as the new head coach for Liverpool men heading into the new season, and though the World Cup has unsurprisingly taken much of the news wind from the summer, there hasn’t been any movement regarding which of his staff members from Bournemouth – or elsewhere – would join him in Merseyside.
That changed slightly on Friday with the news that two of Iraola’s coaches from Bournemouth, Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper, have agreed to leave the south western club and are expected to sign contracts with Liverpool to reunite with the Basque leader this weekend.
The Cherries had reportedly been planning to keep Elphick and Cooper on staff to assist their own new manager Marco Rose for the new season, and their first in European competition, but that has since changed.
Elphick is a former Premier League centerback, having led Bournemouth as captain through promotions from both League One and the Championship to the Premier League. He joined Iraola’s staff as an assistant shortly after his retirement from playing in 2021, and even more recently was offered the head management position for Bristol City, which he turned down in May of this year.
Elphick, despite growing up on the south coast of England, grew up supporting Liverpool so will help fill a gap in the backroom in regards to the culture of the club.
Shaun Cooper, also a retired Bournemouth defender through their Premier League years, joined in a managerial capacity first under Gary O’Neil and stayed on to work with Iraola.
There are still rumors around that the club will be looking to add a former player of their own to the backroom for Iraola, after David Lynch mentioned on a podcast the possitibilty. Thiago Alcantara and James Milner are popular options, with the former just finishing a contract with Barcelona, but nothing real has come out of the wishful thinking.