On the face of it, it seems a no-brainer that Xabi Alonso should want to join such a giant club as Liverpool rather than staying at Bayer Leverkusen, a club based in a town the same size as my native Harrogate. Alonso is also a former stylish midfielder who played 210 times for Liverpool from 2004 to 2009. It’s not hard therefore to see why he has long been installed as the favourite to replace Jurgen Klopp over the summer.
But Alonso is on the brink of taking Leverkusen to their first Bundesliga title and unbelievably they are unbeaten in all competitions this season, and enquiries by Liverpool have apparently indicated that he is minded to stay at Leverkusen for at least another season.
This is a similar experience to that of Bayern Munich, who were also publicly pursuing Alonso, but had to beat a hasty retreat leading their honorary president, Uli Hoeness, to state that it was “impossible” to persuade Alonso to join the Bavarian giants.
He stated: “[Alonso] is more inclined to stay at Bayer Leverkusen in view of their current successes, because he would not want to leave them behind. Let’s say if had two or three more years of success, it would probably be easier to bring him out of there.”
Apparently Liverpool have now reached the same conclusion, so where does that leave their search for a new manager? Perhaps, Ruben Amorim of Sporting Lisbon, or Roberto De Zerbi from Brighton. Or, a very left field suggestion, what about persuading the legend that is Marcello Bielsa to take another run at managing a Premier League club? No question Leeds fans all still love him for how he made the club feel, and even Bielsa himself has expressed regret that he did not adapt his methods more closely to the demands of the league. A wised-up Bielsa team? Now that would be interesting!