Portsmouth academy graduate Shaun Cooper is set to join Premier League giants Liverpool as part of a new-look first-team set-up. Cooper, a 42-year-old former defender, has spent the majority of his career at AFC Bournemouth, where he made 240 appearances across a seven-year spell. He is now poised to join Liverpool, along with Bristol City target Tommy Elphick, who is also being touted to follow Andoni Iraola to Anfield. Iraola, a Spaniard, is set to succeed Arne Slot as manager after his sacking last weekend. Cooper made seven first-team appearances for Portsmouth at the back end of the 2001-02 season, after Harry Redknapp's arrival in the second tier. He later returned to the club in 2012, scoring in a memorable 2-1 win over Sheffield United, and again in 2013-14, totalling 33 first-team appearances for the club in total. Cooper took on a development squad coaching role at Bournemouth in 2018, before stepping up into the senior set-up in 2022. He is likely to join Liverpool as an assistant to Iraola, and will deepen a significant Portsmouth connection at Anfield. Key to Iraola's appointment is Richard Hughes, a long-serving Fratton favourite who took him to Bournemouth from Rayo Vallecano three years ago. Hughes then moved from Dorset to Merseyside just over two years ago as sporting director, cementing a connection with former Portsmouth analyst Michael Edwards. Edwards, known as Prozone Eddie in his Fratton days, is now the power behind the throne at Liverpool as chief executive football for the club's owners Fenway Sports Group. The club's assistant sporting director, David Woodfine, spent over five years at Portsmouth as an analyst and then head of performance analysis before going to West Ham and then on to Liverpool in 2014.