⚽ Premier League 2025/2026 Discussion Thread ⚽

[Halifat]

Andoni Iraola had an excellent season at Bournemouth and he absolutely deserved his appointment at a top club like Liverpool. For me, it's a simple and obvious choice. Iraola has earned the right to work at a top club. But to be honest, I don't have high expectations for his future at Liverpool. We saw how much criticism Slot received during the 25/26 season, so I don't expect things to be fundamentally better under Iraola.

I thought Liverpool were looking for a more experienced manager. But they appointed Andoni iraola. Anyway, Andoni Iraola is not new to the Premier League. This  will definitely help liverpool. Bournemouth's squad was not very strong. Even then, the team's performance was quite good with the help of  Iraola. Bournemouth was in ninth place in  the table last season and this season they finished the season in sixth place in the table. Hopefully, Iraola will not disappoint liverpool fans.

Andoni Iraola is a good manager because at least he make an impact by moving three steps ahead, the average team in the Premier League can not be able to compete for the tittle race because they are not spending so much like top teams that is why i respected Andoni iraola for making that wonderful achievement for Bournemouth. He contributed a lot to the club that is why I am so confident that he will not disappoint Liverpool's fans. Let see how the movement will be if the season start, but I have confidence for him because he has proven it.

[jakdanyel]

After there is no Guardiola in the PL things are going to feel more interesting for me. You know he is one of the best managers in football history. At least for me, he is...

Now Enzo Maresca replaces him at Manchester City. Arteta at Arsenal, Xabi Alonso at Chelsea, Iraola at Liverpool and Carrick at Manchester United now.

None of them is a CL winner manager currently. I could say they are closer to each other now after Guardiola's departure.

[Shineup]

Andoni Iraola had an excellent season at Bournemouth and he absolutely deserved his appointment at a top club like Liverpool. For me, it's a simple and obvious choice. Iraola has earned the right to work at a top club. But to be honest, I don't have high expectations for his future at Liverpool. We saw how much criticism Slot received during the 25/26 season, so I don't expect things to be fundamentally better under Iraola.

I thought Liverpool were looking for a more experienced manager. But they appointed Andoni iraola. Anyway, Andoni Iraola is not new to the Premier League. This  will definitely help liverpool. Bournemouth's squad was not very strong. Even then, the team's performance was quite good with the help of  Iraola. Bournemouth was in ninth place in  the table last season and this season they finished the season in sixth place in the table. Hopefully, Iraola will not disappoint liverpool fans.

Andoni Iraola is a good manager because at least he make an impact by moving three steps ahead, the average team in the Premier League can not be able to compete for the tittle race because they are not spending so much like top teams that is why i respected Andoni iraola for making that wonderful achievement for Bournemouth. He contributed a lot to the club that is why I am so confident that he will not disappoint Liverpool's fans. Let see how the movement will be if the season start, but I have confidence for him because he has proven it.

He's a good coach no doubt, but remember the expectations of Bournemouth is different from that of Liverpool, we have seem so many coaches that once coached small teams but when they are signed into big teams they fail, but let's not rush into conclusions, let's wait till the beginning of next season, but deep down I don't think Andoni Iraola can help this Liverpool, like Jurgen Klopp has set the standard so high that it will only take a well experience coach to maintain such standards, but who knows he might succeed but even if he will it won't be just instance.

[Oluwa-btc]

After there is no Guardiola in the PL things are going to feel more interesting for me. You know he is one of the best managers in football history. At least for me, he is...

Now Enzo Maresca replaces him at Manchester City. Arteta at Arsenal, Xabi Alonso at Chelsea, Iraola at Liverpool and Carrick at Manchester United now.

None of them is a CL winner manager currently. I could say they are closer to each other now after Guardiola's departure.

Xabi Alonso did brilliantly with Bayer Leverkusen,  Enzo Maresca already worked with Pep Guardiola when they won the Champions League competition and also the Premier league competition that season, he is known to be a trophy winner who also did with Chelsea, I have no doubt about hin with Chelsea.
Carrick experience will work for him but with Champions League football, he will have to do more than what he did last season. Andoni Iraola also will do well, he just needs significant incoming to project his tactics.

[Giwagi56]

After there is no Guardiola in the PL things are going to feel more interesting for me. You know he is one of the best managers in football history. At least for me, he is...

Now Enzo Maresca replaces him at Manchester City. Arteta at Arsenal, Xabi Alonso at Chelsea, Iraola at Liverpool and Carrick at Manchester United now.

None of them is a CL winner manager currently. I could say they are closer to each other now after Guardiola's departure.

Arteta and Enzo Maresca are the one that can dominate Premier League and also do well in the Champions League if they want to because they have the experience of winning and since Arteta has finally won the league this season i think he will be hungry for more and wants to dominate the league but what Arsenal lack is consistency, Arsenal don’t have players that will keep their performance till the end of the season that is why the team always suffer and drop points at the end.

I will not be surprise if Manchester City win the league next season because they have a good coach that knows how to win a trophy, the reason why i didn’t count on Alonso is because he is new to the league and if he later did not do well i will not blame him because Chelsea need a coach that will build the team, what Enzo Maresca build has been destroyed by other coaches that come after he was sacked.

[Distraction]

Salah is leaving Liverpool this summer as you know. I see no problem in that. He was great in the 2024/25 season. It was like his career-high or similar to that!

But things went sideways for him this season.    It's time for a change on Liverpool side. Probably his place won't be the only one to be filled. I expect some good level of transfer activity according to Iraola's player targets.

[LUCKMCFLY]

That’s what one would expect considering that Manchester City were on the verge of turning the premier league into a farmers league. But that’s not what we saw this season in real life, online, and on this thread, premier league fans were absolutely fine with Manchester City winning the league. Tell me why I don’t see people saying Arsenal saved premier league football 

People are very dramatic, they're always looking for something to exaggerate, that's just how rivalry is, that's what makes it happen. There are sayings that are in line with what's going on. What I didn't like about City is that they lost key matches, because they should have gone to the final and won it, but this time they weren't so lucky. Maybe things happen for a reason.

[Jegileman]

After there is no Guardiola in the PL things are going to feel more interesting for me. You know he is one of the best managers in football history. At least for me, he is...

Now Enzo Maresca replaces him at Manchester City. Arteta at Arsenal, Xabi Alonso at Chelsea, Iraola at Liverpool and Carrick at Manchester United now.

None of them is a CL winner manager currently. I could say they are closer to each other now after Guardiola's departure.

With this, we should expect some big fun in the game now. All managers that are going to be playing in the champions league will want to fight till the end. So also, the premier league will be a big fight for them to also want to win in the next season.

This is going to be a very tough and interesting season than we’ve just witnessed now. Enzo Maresca will be one of those managers that will be looked out on for the title because they’ll want him to do better than his predecessor. Overall, the premier league will be more competitive and we will get to see the best from these managers.

[pawel7777]

We're still awaiting news about Man City's new appointment of the manager who would replace Pep Guardiola.
I wonder if the still unresolved 115 league charges against the club. I'm not sure if there's any date of the ruling on those, but the potential implication, if the ruling is unfavourable to the City could be huge, including hefty penalties, negative points, or even potential relegation.

There are rumours going on about Man City's major shareholder, Sheikh Mansour's intention to sell the club, but Man City's chairman denied that speculation. Either way, the next season could be really challenging for the Citizens.

[Mayor of ogba]

I wasn't expecting for a very experienced manager for Liverpool honestly. I was only waiting for Xabi Alonso to be offered the job when Arne Slot is sacked.

But they were late for the sacking and lost Xabi to Chelsea instead... This must have pushed them for Plan B which is Iraola.

Iraola will ask for time from the board. Like I said earlier, I don't expect Liverpool to be incredible suddenly.

Since Arne Slot performed below expectations this season his future at Liverpool was unclear, so I was thinking Xabi Alonso would become Liverpool head coach if Arne Slot is sacked. However, even as Liverpool management has parted ways with Arne Slot, Xabi Alonso can't become Liverpool head coach because he currently signed a contract with Chelsea. I don't have any expectation from Adoni Iraola at Liverpool, if he fails to perform well at Liverpool I won't blame him as it's somewhat difficult for a coach to meet up to the expectations at Liverpool.

[Cyber_warrior]

I wasn't expecting for a very experienced manager for Liverpool honestly. I was only waiting for Xabi Alonso to be offered the job when Arne Slot is sacked.

But they were late for the sacking and lost Xabi to Chelsea instead... This must have pushed them for Plan B which is Iraola.

Iraola will ask for time from the board. Like I said earlier, I don't expect Liverpool to be incredible suddenly.

Since Arne Slot performed below expectation this season and as his future at Liverpool was unclear I was also thinking Xabi Alonso would become Liverpool head coach if Arne Slot is sacked. However, even as Liverpool management has parted ways with Arne Slot, Xabi Alonso can't become Liverpool head coach because he currently signed a contract with Chelsea. I don't have any expectation from Adoni Iraola at Liverpool, if he fails to perform well at Liverpool I won't blame him as it's somewhat difficult for a coach to meet up to the expectations at Liverpool.

Even when slot was performing very poorly the board made a statement and said they stand by him and still believe in his project, but when the season ended I don’t know what really happened between him and the board that decide to sack him.
Maybe only if slot was sacked sooner they might have been able to get the services of Xabi Alonso, he was the one everyone was expecting to be at Liverpool next season.
Witt almost all the big teams now with new managers or going to be an interesting season, we will see a lot of challenges. Now we will see who will crate waves at the premier league next season.

[Issa56]

Now Enzo Maresca replaces him at Manchester City. Arteta at Arsenal, Xabi Alonso at Chelsea, Iraola at Liverpool and Carrick at Manchester United now.

Am not the only one thinking next season is going to be a interesting season, I know Manchester city are still going to continue with their good performance, because they have quality player’s already, and Enzo Maresca which is going to be joining the team is also a crazy manager, he is so talented also, and will continue from where Pep Guardiola stop.

Xabi Alonso should be able to improve Chelsea performance, but Chelsea should just allow some players leave the team, and they have to start signing players with experience, you can’t just allow young players to be in the club also. Chelsea performance last season was just terrible most especially after Enzo Maresca left Chelsea, but with Xabi Alonso, we should expect improvement in the team.

Next season premier league winner is going to be difficult to predict, pep Guardiola which has been dominating the premier league is no longer available, so we should expect any club to win it, I won’t be surprise if Arsenal wins it for the second time.

[Nheer]

After there is no Guardiola in the PL things are going to feel more interesting for me. You know he is one of the best managers in football history. At least for me, he is...

Now Enzo Maresca replaces him at Manchester City. Arteta at Arsenal, Xabi Alonso at Chelsea, Iraola at Liverpool and Carrick at Manchester United now.

None of them is a CL winner manager currently. I could say they are closer to each other now after Guardiola's departure.

He's made his mark in the league, dominated for a while and I think he'll be remembered for his achievements. He's one the bests managers in football even though he mostly wants to manage too teams with all the resources he needs.
It's true all these managers are not champions league winners yet but they have lots of potential and I believe soon one of them will win the champions league. The League is gonna be interesting next season since they are much closer to each other and the fact that most of them are disciples of Guardiola makes it even more interesting.

Salah is leaving Liverpool this summer as you know. I see no problem in that. He was great in the 2024/25 season. It was like his career-high or similar to that!

But things went sideways for him this season.    It's time for a change on Liverpool side. Probably his place won't be the only one to be filled. I expect some good level of transfer activity according to Iraola's player targets.

Salah has done enough for them already, he can't play forever so he should consider leaving. There's nothing more for him there.
Iraola will definitely need to improve the team especially since some good players are leaving, he will have to replace them asap.

[SatoPrincess]

That’s what one would expect considering that Manchester City were on the verge of turning the premier league into a farmers league. But that’s not what we saw this season in real life, online, and on this thread, premier league fans were absolutely fine with Manchester City winning the league. Tell me why I don’t see people saying Arsenal saved premier league football 

People are very dramatic, they're always looking for something to exaggerate, that's just how rivalry is, that's what makes it happen. There are sayings that are in line with what's going on. What I didn't like about City is that they lost key matches, because they should have gone to the final and won it, but this time they weren't so lucky. Maybe things happen for a reason.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the rivalry, sometimes even more than the game but I don’t like the way rival fans gang up against Arsenal for just existing when really they should be against 115 charges Manchester City.
P.S. You said City but I think you might have meant Arsenal because Pep’s team do not lose key matches.

[Mate2237]

Next season is definitely going to be highly competitive because looking at the new coaches and their profiles they are all coaches that has experience and has something to offer. Let see how theses managers are going to lead their respective teams out especially when it comes to the premier League trophy. This is indeed the end of an era and the starting of a new chapter in the premier League. Because for a very long time the league has been dominated by some sets of managers and next season, non of those manger will be in the premier League.


I believe that these sets of managers will bring their wealth of experience in the premier League and add some spices to the league. The premier League will be as competitive as never before because these set of managers will fight for trophies both in the local competitions and even in Europe.

[Smartvirus]

That’s what one would expect considering that Manchester City were on the verge of turning the premier league into a farmers league. But that’s not what we saw this season in real life, online, and on this thread, premier league fans were absolutely fine with Manchester City winning the league. Tell me why I don’t see people saying Arsenal saved premier league football 

A farmers league huh, like we have with Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga or PSG in the Ligue 1. Well, Manchester City came quite close too this season and Arsenal only got lucky with Manchester City having to loss a critical game, was it Bournemouth, yeah I think it was Bournemouth and that gave Arsenal a huge chance. That’s what Arsenal couldn’t do themselves so, people aren’t very impressed but, I’m actually glad they won, they’ve struggled far too long to always end up being over taken by other teams like Liverpool and Manchester City. They’ve also lost a trophy to Manchester City during the season.

[rachael9385]

After there is no Guardiola in the PL things are going to feel more interesting for me. You know he is one of the best managers in football history. At least for me, he is...

Now Enzo Maresca replaces him at Manchester City. Arteta at Arsenal, Xabi Alonso at Chelsea, Iraola at Liverpool and Carrick at Manchester United now.

None of them is a CL winner manager currently. I could say they are closer to each other now after Guardiola's departure.

Change is constant and that is something that we must always adapt ourselves to, pep has done a lot in the premier league and his input won't be forgotten but there's always going to be need for a change. Enzo maresca can actually do better if he's given the chance, we just need to see what happens next season.

[Amphenomenon]

After there is no Guardiola in the PL things are going to feel more interesting for me. You know he is one of the best managers in football history. At least for me, he is...

Now Enzo Maresca replaces him at Manchester City. Arteta at Arsenal, Xabi Alonso at Chelsea, Iraola at Liverpool and Carrick at Manchester United now.

None of them is a CL winner manager currently. I could say they are closer to each other now after Guardiola's departure.

A new era has begin indeed in management, no top teams in the EPL is with a world class manager, we can say Arteta seems like the most experienced or top manager.

Enzo Maresca and Xabi Alonso have made names for themselves also lifting major trophies especially Maresca while Adoni Iraola  is managing his first ever major things, from the best of my knowledge currently yet I feel this will be exciting including in UEFA competitions.

[Sexylizzy2813]

When a manager leaves a club that we have seen him do well for a long time, the whole place becomes different and you would see the changes on how the players play, City and Pep Guardiola path ways and I'm still thinking on how the Citizens would manage, can they even be that competitive as they use to be? The EPL table is definitely going to change and if care is not taken we could be seeing teams that are not regular show up in the top 4 to occupy that position, what I mean is that some clubs like Manchester City could be missing out in the top 4, how are we expected to see Manchester City operate next season?

Lets not all be negative on the possible outcome of Manchester city after being left by pep Guardiola, as a matter of fact, I believe that the club manager or coach will not just leave like that without a replacement who he must have been teaching, training for months before his departure time..

I do not know how the next Manchester City coach will be or has become, whether is or will be hired or will be choosen in amongst the management of the club, but one thing I suppose was to be done is that if the new coach will or was choosen from the management of the team, he ought to have been following pep for long and learn how pep manages his boys, with this knowledge, he may still lead Manchester City to victories same way pep did..
But if the new coach to replace pep is going or has been hired from outside, then I fear if he will be as good as pep was, And even if he is, it will definitely take some time before the team stablizes under the new coach to start performing like they are known for.

Is never about being negative for City is just the fact, for years Manchester City have been making all other EPL teams to look small which means they have been dominating the league even when they miss out on winning the title it still shows that they are stronger contenders but now that we don't have Pep Guardiola who have been the talk of the English Premier League I wonder how they can continue that same momentum to stay active in competing, it will be hard. That chapter of being dominant is no longer there until we see what the new coach will bring and the management are seriously looking for a better manager maybe close to the level of Pep and if they don't get such then we all should be ready to see City changing manager like 2 times in a season. What Pep Guardiola left with is something I'm not seeing any manager to come and replace.

[Berry2d]

No matter what is happening now in the Premier League i will say i am happy to see the competitiveness existing in other Leagues also takes place in the Premier league,  some year back it was like the English Premier League belongs to Manchester City but all thanks to Liverpool and to Arsenal that made there effort turned zero this season.
With what I have seen now,  I will say the winning days of Manchester City have gone and shifted to the side of other teams, and with what I am seeing other teams will come out with full momentum just to let Manchester City know the English Premier League do not only belong to them alone