Liverpool are still searching for their Jurgen Klopp successor and Xabi Alonso remains the favourite for the job.
Xabi Alonso continues to be linked with a move to Liverpool as Jurgen Klopp’s reign as manager of the Reds approaches its end.
Klopp has two months remaining at the helm and will go looking to go out on a high as he brings down the curtain on a hugely successful nine years in charge of the club.
Replacing the German will be somewhat of an impossible task, though Liverpool have no choice other than to select the correct candidate that will provide the team with the best chance of success for the present and future.
Alonso is viewed as that individual in the eyes of many supporters after overseeing a remarkable turnaround at Bayer Leverkusen. Fighting relegation when he was first appointed in October 2022, his side are now closing in on a first-ever Bundesliga title.
Plenty has been said in recent months regarding whether the Spaniard is the right fit for the Reds, with the thoughts of former players turned pundits highlighted below.
Michael Owen (speaking to LuckyBlock): “The thing is in life, certainly in football, you can have all these best-made plans and then comes the unexpected. I look at my career and thought I was going to play for whoever, and all of a sudden you’re offered something else and you think that it might never ever come again.
“When Real Madrid asked me to play for them, I knew I was never going to get asked again so what was I going to do? It’s alright thinking about taking it step by step and building and maybe waiting on his move to Liverpool, but I’m sure Steven Gerrard thought that when he was at Rangers.
“People thought Aston Villa might be a stepping stone but things didn’t go as well and all of a sudden he’s not really in the running for the Liverpool job. It’s alright plotting a perfect path but you know what, life is never perfect and if the opportunity comes to manage Liverpool how the hell do you say no given his affinity with the club?
I understand it, we’ve debated it with ex players over who Alonso is going to choose, but if anyone had any ambition in life then you have to keep striving to be the best and going to bigger clubs and winning leagues and Champions Leagues.
“With all due respect, and it’s incredible what Leverkusen are doing at the moment, but they’re not going to win the Champions League on a consistent basis or be one of Europe’s elite.
He has got to move at some point and it looks like the two obvious ones are Bayern and Liverpool and as I say, you could be waiting forever for the perfect time to take over at the club so sometimes you just have to go for that gut feeling.”
John Barnes (speaking to Bonuscodebets):
“I think Xabi Alonso will be an ideal replacement. He knows the club and the fans love him so he’s already coming in with an affiliation and a successful period at the club. He’s been a successful manager in terms of what he’s done at Bayer Leverkusen so it’s an obvious choice. I don’t think there are many great candidates. Once upon a time you had the Ancelotti’s and the Mourinho’s.
“Ange Postecoglou is a top manager but he’s only been at Tottenham since the summer so him coming to Liverpool would be a shock. Xabi Alonso would be the natural one.”
Jamie Carragher (speaking on The Overlap):
“For me, if we’re talking about who should come in, I think it should be Xabi Alonso. He is very inexperienced in management, having managed just sixty or seventy games, but what you would have straight away is the club on side. Not just because he’s an ex-Liverpool player, but because of the respect he had as a player and what he’s done at Bayern Leverkusen within eighteen months is remarkable.
“They were in the relegation zone when he came in and he almost qualified for the Champions League last year and got to the Semi-Finals of the Europa Conference League. This season, they are top of the league and in the Europa League. You think of the managers he’s been managed by – Carlo Ancelotti, Rafa Benitez, Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, and the football they play. He’s the type of guy that if he came in, he’d have the crowd straight away.”
Jason McAteer: (speaking to BoyleSports):
“A lot of life is timing, being in the right place at the right time. People say to me ‘Oh Steven Gerrard next Liverpool manager’. Not necessarily – if the stars don’t align with his managerial career and Jurgen Klopp wants to leave, it’s not going to happen. If you’re asking me right now Xabi Alonso is ahead of Steven because of just the way things are happening and the time.”
Stephen Warnock (speaking to the Liverpool ECHO):
“Xabi Alonso will have only come onto their radar in the past year or so and there may have been someone else in the back of their mind that they were thinking he could be the replacement for Klopp.
“The manager I imagine is the leading candidate is Roberto De Zerbi, because of the way he came into the Premier League and due to his success with Brighton. He’s done an incredible job and almost works within the resources that Klopp has had to work with as well. I think he would be an ideal fit for the club.
“However, Xabi has gone into Bayer Leverkusen, taken them from struggling near the bottom of the table last season into a European place, and then what he’s doing this year is quite incredible.”
Didi Hamann (speaking to BoyleSports):
“If you look at Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, they had unsteady times and went through managers in the years after they left, which is always a danger.
