Milos Kerkez: ‘I’m delighted – Andoni Iraola is the perfect fit for Liverpool’
Milos Kerkez says he is pleased to be reunited with Andoni Iraola and described the Spaniard as an ideal match for Liverpool, after a summer that combined family moments, holidays and unexpected developments. The full-back also recounted the surprise of learning Arne Slot had been dismissed and addressed a case of mistaken identity that prompted thousands of messages of congratulations.
Kerkez spent time at home in Serbia over the close season, and had holidays in Montenegro and Spain before returning to club duties. He remembers a day when someone knocked on his bedroom door to tell him Arne Slot had been sacked, and soon after he found himself back alongside Andoni Iraola. A photograph taken in his hometown of Vrbas showing him escorting a bride into a church led many to assume he had married, an assumption that brought a flood of well-wishers. Congratulations were still being offered as the conversation began on a rooftop terrace at Liverpool’s team hotel.
“I’m delighted – Andoni Iraola is the perfect fit for Liverpool,” Kerkez said, expressing his satisfaction at reuniting with a former manager. The remark captured his positive assessment of the change in leadership and his personal response to working again under someone he already knows. That sentiment framed the rest of the discussion about how his summer unfolded and how quickly events moved from quiet family time to front-page attention.
“No! This is wrong, everyone gets this wrong!” the full-back exclaims. “It was my oldest brother. In Serbia it is normal for the younger brothers to take the bride to the church. That’s what I did and now everyone thinks I got married. It was Rade, not me. There are three of us – Rade is the oldest, I’m the youngest and Marko is the middle one. I keep having to explain to people that I never got married. I was going around the club when we started back and people were congratulating me. I’m like: ‘No, I’m not ready for this yet!’”
The mistaken wedding photograph produced significant attention from supporters and acquaintances, prompting Kerkez to clarify family tradition and his role on the day. He described the experience of being congratulated by teammates and club staff on his return, and having to correct the assumption that he had tied the knot. That episode sat alongside the shock of Slot’s sacking and the swift reunion with Iraola as the defining moments of his off-season.
Kerkez’s account combined personal anecdote and professional perspective: a summer that moved from domestic holidays to abrupt managerial change and renewed collaboration with a familiar coach. He remains upbeat about working under Iraola while dispelling the wedding rumours that followed the Vrbas photograph.