Sources: Manager wanted by Liverpool and Nottingham Forest agrees new post
New Olympiacos manager Imanol Alguacil held talks over jobs with Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth, sources have told Football Insider.
The Cherries discussed the 55-year-old when assessing successors to Andoni Iraola this summer, while both Nottingham Forest and Liverpool have previously considered his appointment.
The 55-year-old has replaced Jose Luis Mendilibar at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, after he left Saudi Pro League side Al-Shabab in February.
Alguacil spent more than six years in charge of Real Sociedad between 2018 and 2025, ending their 33-year wait for a trophy in 2020 and guiding them to the Champions League in 2023.
He will now hope to replicate his success with Olympiacos, and will face the task of leading his team back to the top of Greek football.
Bournemouth ultimately opted for Marco Rose this summer, and have enjoyed a mixed start to the season.
Who is Imanol Alguacil?
Born in Northern Spain, Alguacil spent his youth career with Real Sociedad and eventually broke into the first team as a player.
A strong right-back, he would go on to make 130 appearances for his boyhood club, leaving in 1998 and retiring just five years later.
He would return to Sociedad in 2011, initially coaching the youth sides before briefly joining David Moyes' backroom staff when the now-Everton manager arrived in 2014.
Alguacil was appointed as manager in 2018 and led his side to victory in the Copa del Rey in 2020, before eventually departing in 2025.
The Spaniard is another of the coaches to have come from Gipuzkoa, a small province in Northern Spain that has birthed the likes of Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso, Unai Emery and Andoni Iraola.
Alguacil's style of play
Similarly to others that have emerged from Gipuzkoa, Alguacil's football focuses on possession and intensity.
The Spaniard encourages attacking football but an aggressive and compact pressing system without the ball, making his teams hard to break down.
He will hope to enact that philosophy at Olympacios, where he will face an adaptation from Mendilibar's slower build up-based football.
Alguacil's first game in charge will come against OFI Crete in the Greek Super League on Saturday.