Ex-Red Adam Lallana Named Interim Player-Manager at Brighton

While most Liverpool fans would sooner see the entire squad replaced than Jürgen Klopp shown the door were it ever to come to that, there are few other managers in football who can even come close to the German’s job security or expect that level of backing.

And so despite the season being barely less than a month old, the managerial carousel has begun, with Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel—fresh off £200M spent over the summer building a team to suit his specific tactics—joining Bournemouth’s Scott Parker at the unemployed managers table.

As a result, Chelsea have made the move for highly rated Brighton manager Graham Potter. It’s big news for Chelsea fans but not the main focus from a Liverpool point of view.

What is the focus from Liverpool point of view is that Chelsea’s move for Potter will in turn result in former player Adam Lallana being named interim player-manager at Brighton alongside U21 boss Andrew Crofts—hardly an old hand at coaching himself having only retired from playing in 2021.

Unfortunately for fans of the unusual, Lallana is currently out injured so will not be able to substitute himself on or off when Brighton take on Bournemouth on Saturday.

Meanwhile, following Parker’s sacking Bournemouth are under the temporary stewardship of Gary O’Neil, who retired in the summer of 2019 before joining Liverpool’s U23s as an assistant a year later and heading to Bournemouth to work as a coach with the senior team in 2021.