Andoni Iraola is now in charge at Liverpool, but his managerial career began in Cyprus with AEK Larnaca and ended in the sack. Seven years ago, he was dismissed after a winless run of six league games in the Cypriot top division, a streak that included a 2-2 home draw with Ermis Aradippou, the team that would go on to finish bottom of the table.
Iraola learned from the experience and rebuilt his career back in Spain with Mirandes before impressing at Rayo Vallecano and Bournemouth, which earned him his opportunity at Anfield. For his old colleagues in Cyprus, the rise must be a curious sight.
Signs of what was to come
Were there clues beyond the results that Iraola was destined for bigger things, and was he simply the victim of a trigger-happy firing culture at the Cypriot club? David Catala, who played under him at Larnaca, including in that final game, saw 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.”
Iraola had spent his entire playing career in Europe at Athletic Club, with a brief spell in the United States at New York City. His first venture into management with Larnaca took him outside his comfort zone, even though there was a Spanish contingent at the club.
His early impact was impressive. Larnaca negotiated three rounds of qualifying to reach the Europa League group stage, with wins over Dundalk, Sturm Graz and Trencin. Just as significantly, the players 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.
“Everything was more explosive with him, more rhythm, more intensity,” Catala says. “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.”
Catala now recognises that it was a glimpse of the future. “Football has gone in that direction. The way you have to press. It changed the mentality of the players.” He adds that Iraola also changed the rhythm of the league in Cyprus a little.
A collapse in form
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 side to beat them in that period. Iraola’s team 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 was sandwiched between three away trips on the island that produced 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 formation tweaks, but nothing major. “He did not change too much in terms of his thinking about the way of playing against different teams,” Catala recalls.
A harsh lesson in pressure
The real lesson was that pressure arrives quickly in football, even in an environment that was supposed to be far from the spotlight for a figure who had been so high-profile as a player. “If you are not getting results, it is difficult to have the trust of the owners.”
“Cyprus is very difficult for coaches, and especially for young coaches, because the owners of the football clubs, they are very passionate,” Catala explains. “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.”
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 has also 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.”
On Iraola’s move to Liverpool, Catala is candid. “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 distance is remarkable, yet the foundations were visible from the start.