Xabi Alonso: Bayer Leverkusen manager

Another day and of course another report ;)

After Bild contradicted Sky's claims that Bayern has initiated first contact with Alonso citing internal Leverkusen as well as Bayern sources, they publicized Leverkusen's short list for potential Alonso replacements today. What sounds as if we're preparing for his departure is actually positive news. Bild clarified after their clickbaity headline that Leverkusen is always maintaining such a list, keeping contact with potential mid- to longterm coaching candidates and monitoring their situations and developments. However, Rolfes apparently halted those networking activities rigorously because he doesn't want to give the journalists any fodder for rumours. He plans with Alonso and is so sure of his continuance that he sees no immediate need to continue the usual exchanges with potential future candidates in this phase.
 
sometimes you get a prize winning cow from an otherwise poor herd.
 
I can’t believe he wasn’t impressed by the 268 Sky Sports and Athletic articles about why he should take the Liverpool job
 
So many managers move too soon. Despite the job he’s done, he is pretty inexperienced. If he really is the next great coach then the big jobs will still be waiting for him when he wants them. Getting some more experience and proving this season isn’t a fluke would be smart on his part.
 
Well that settles it then for Liverpool.

Cometh the hour, cometh the slippy.
 
We will fall apart and finish around ~70 points if we get De Zerbi as a replacement.
 
RobinLFC said:
We will fall apart and finish around ~70 points if we get De Zerbi as a replacement.
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Julian Nagelsmann looks like an ideal replacement to Klopp to me..is he even mentioned in the list of the candidates?!
 
Good choice IMO, and not because I don't want him at Liverpool.

They've built a good team at Leverkusen and 1 Bundesliga title might not be enough for him. One more season will give him a chance to defend the title, which would be another very impressive achievement, as well as experience the Champions League together with what he's built. If they have another decent-to-great season, then 2025 will be a great time to get a bigger job.
 
It would fit his career so far if he stays at Leverkusen and turns down offers now. He also didn't jump at the first Bundesliga offers. Gladbach tried their luck before Leverkusen and then he thought it wasn't right for him at the time.
 
He’ll replace Carlo.

I always thought Liverpool was the least likely place he’d end up out of his former clubs.

Madrid have a perfect squad, and the perfect age profile. It’s also his home country, and the biggest club in the world.

Bayern biggest club in Germany. Country his family are settled in. I don’t know how old his kids are, but I imagine they either speak Spanish/German.
 
Liverpool will get the sporting manager. Bayern will get another manager. We will give Ten Hag another season until his contract finishes; Alonso would be ripe for the picking next season with everyone still having their first season with their respective new maanger.
 
He’s got a great thing going in Leverkusen. Plenty of good jobs will be open a year from now too. Good decision by him .
 
strandty said:
Staying put

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I really want him at United (purely because it would be great to have an ex Liverpool favourite being a great manager for us) this makes it a touch more likely. But more than certain he then replaces Ancelotti at Real.
 
Ali Dia said:
I hope not because if ETH was to go that’s who I would want.
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Likewise can just see him succeeding in the English league. I think Chelsea miss out drastically with talks between him and the club breaking down.
 
macheda14 said:
I really want him at United (purely because it would be great to have an ex Liverpool favourite being a great manager for us) this makes it a touch more likely. But more than certain he then replaces Ancelotti at Real.
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Yeah he is my first choice and him not going there gives me a bit of hope,however can now see Nagelsmann going there which is annoying
 
It doesn't make a lot of sense to continue staying there. Bayern will do what they did to Klopp's Dortmund and rip apart the Leverkusen squad by poaching top players and reestablishing their dominance. He's had a hit this year and can basically get any club he wants next year. Liverpool will fit him the best, given he's already been there. He won't get a better timing. Hopefully he (or whoever joins Liverpool) will bring facht football back to Liverpool again.
 
bringbackbebe said:
It doesn't make a lot of sense to continue staying there. Bayern will do what they did to Klopp's Dortmund and rip apart the Leverkusen squad by poaching top players and reestablishing their dominance.
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Will they? So far there are very little rumours about it and even in regard to Alonso they effectively admitted defeat already. Alonso probably staying, Wirtz staying, other key players are in their first season and won't be sold, at least not easily (Xhaka, Grimaldo, Boniface...)

There will be transfers for sure, but so far it doesn't feel like Bayern is going to destroy Leverkusen like they tried with Dortmund. Also they lack an X-Factor to convince players (Götze wanted to play for Pep for example)
 
Having given further thought to the matter, Xabi left us for Madrid once and therefore it is better that he goes there first, to get it out of his system, before leading us to greatness.

We'll be fecked in the meantime, but it's the right way.
 
I'm slightly surprised Alonso hasn't been moved by the Bayern job being available. For a promising coach like him it seems like a bit of a tap in for bulking up his CV with a few trophies before potentially moving on again. Maybe he's playing the long game waiting for Madrid but I wouldn't have thought going to Bayern would hurt his chances of getting that gig if he wanted it even a year down the line.

I'm just glad it seems he won't end up at Liverpool. There would've been an inevitable drop off from Klopp but it would've been frustrating to see them replace him with arguably the best available manager out there at the moment while we're still dicking around with our own managerial situation.
 
CM10 said:
I'm slightly surprised Alonso hasn't been moved by the Bayern job being available. For a promising coach like him it seems like a bit of a tap in for bulking up his CV with a few trophies before potentially moving on again.
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Is it really that surprising? He's managing the team that has pipped them to the title. He's accomplished something great. Going for the tap in and being a complete dickhead in the process just to pad your CV is the mark of lesser men.
 
CM10 said:
I'm slightly surprised Alonso hasn't been moved by the Bayern job being available. For a promising coach like him it seems like a bit of a tap in for bulking up his CV with a few trophies before potentially moving on again. Maybe he's playing the long game waiting for Madrid but I wouldn't have thought going to Bayern would hurt his chances of getting that gig if he wanted it even a year down the line.
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No manager with half a brain cell bases his career decisions around the Real Madrid job.
 
B20 said:
Is it really that surprising? He's managing the team that has pipped them to the title. He's accomplished something great. Going for the tap in and being a complete dickhead in the process just to pad your CV is the mark of lesser men.
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How much further can he realistically take this Leverkusen team to where he's already taken them though? This season has been pretty much the perfect storm for him and they're unbeaten at the end of March. Maybe he'd like the opportunity to take Leverkusen into the Champions League and he obviously backs himself as a manager, but there's definitely some risk attached in staying for another season.

Alonso's done an exceptional job making them look as cohesive as they do, but I don't think think they even have the individual quality Klopp's Dortmund team had, for example, to help him along if he does stay on. Football is a fickle game and Alonso's stock is high right now, making that move wouldn't make him a dickhead. You have to be smart and choose the right moves at the right time for your career, both as a player and a manager. If Leverkusen have a huge drop off next season Alonso may have talked himself out of the top jobs he's being linked to now.

Regulus Arcturus Black said:
No manager with half a brain cell bases his career decisions around the Real Madrid job.
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I tend to agree. I think he'd be better off going somewhere else before taking on a job of that enormity.
 
CM10 said:
I tend to agree. I think he'd be better off going somewhere else before taking on a job of that enormity.
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Well it’s not even that, it’s just that for almost 30 years now Real Madrid simply don’t keep a manager for more than 3-4 years at most.
They average around 2 years.

No-one is basing their managerial career off a possible 2-3 year stint.

Unlike Klopp at Liverpool, SAF at United or Pep at City, there’s no managerial dynasties at Real, simply because they never make the manager that important.
 
CM10 said:
How much further can he realistically take this Leverkusen team to where he's already taken them though? This season has been pretty much the perfect storm for him and they're unbeaten at the end of March. Maybe he'd like the opportunity to take Leverkusen into the Champions League and he obviously backs himself as a manager, but there's definitely some risk attached in staying for another season.

Alonso's done an exceptional job making them look as cohesive as they do, but I don't think think they even have the individual quality Klopp's Dortmund team had, for example, to help him along if he does stay on. Football is a fickle game and Alonso's stock is high right now, making that move wouldn't make him a dickhead. You have to be smart and choose the right moves at the right time for your career, both as a player and a manager. If Leverkusen have a huge drop off next season Alonso may have talked himself out of the top jobs he's being linked to now.
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Of course it would make him a dickhead. As manager he is the closest thing to a steward of fans hopes and feelings.
Going to their direct rival who, in the absence of an Alonso at Leverkusen, picks up titles by default for 11 straight seasons, would be utterly disrespectful to the club and fanbase he has served at Leverkusen. It would represent a total lack of appreciation for his own work for them to do that.

Arguing that you have to be smart in your career choices doesn't change that.

Where else can he do? He can win the title again for one. Imagine Ferguson leaving united in 99 because there's no way of topping that.

I am reminded of the certain type of management people I've seen in finance, who are only ever concerned about what their current projects look like on their CV before moving on, and never give a thought to how sustainable their actions are for the organization once they leave. They are all dickheads. And no, there is no moral, societal or personal imperative that we should be like that or good reasons for why this is desirable or justified behaviour. It's simple callous egotism, somewhere in the field bordering narcissism and sociopathy (many of them are in fact full-blown sociopaths and narcissts).

And it is anyone's prerogative to act like this if they so please. Just like it is the prerogative of other people to call such people dickheads because they don't want to live in a society that praises and values callous self absorbed ambition over actually caring about the work you do in and of itself and conducting oneself with a modicum of dignity.
 
I like the way the press are acting as if Liverpool have ruled him out rather than the fact he doesn't want the job. If it was manchester united the headline would be Alonso REJECTS UNITED job. Every article reads as if the liverpool job is something every manager in the world is dying to take and they have their pick of candidates.
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
Well it’s not even that, it’s just that for almost 30 years now Real Madrid simply don’t keep a manager for more than 3-4 years at most.
They average around 2 years.

No-one is basing their managerial career off a possible 2-3 year stint.

Unlike Klopp at Liverpool, SAF at United or Pep at City, there’s no managerial dynasties at Real, simply because they never make the manager that important.
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To be fair I don't think many managers would want to stay at Madrid for more than 3 or 4 years. It's a pressure cooker at a club like that and if you outstay your welcome you can be chewed up and spat out. That doesn't mean to say a lot of coaches wouldn't have the ambition to manage them one day though.
 
Reckon they go for someone like Amorim then. They like to go for outside people.
 
iHicksy said:
I like the way the press are acting as if Liverpool have ruled him out rather than the fact he doesn't want the job. If it was manchester united the headline would be Alonso REJECTS UNITED job. Every article reads as if the liverpool job is something every manager in the world is dying to take and they have their pick of candidates.
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Ye that’s what really annoys me. Whenever we pull out of players etc. it’s always they’ve rejected us. A joke
 
B20 said:
Of course it would make him a dickhead. As manager he is the closest thing to a steward of fans hopes and feelings.
Going to their direct rival who, in the absence of an Alonso at Leverkusen, picks up titles by default for 11 straight seasons, would be utterly disrespectful to the club and fanbase he has served at Leverkusen. It would represent a total lack of appreciation for his own work for them to do that.

Arguing that you have to be smart in your career choices doesn't change that.

Where else can he do? He can win the title again for one. Imagine Ferguson leaving united in 99 because there's no way of topping that.

I am reminded of the certain type of management people I've seen in finance, who are only ever concerned about what their current projects look like on their CV before moving on, and never give a thought to how sustainable their actions are for the organization once they leave. They are all dickheads. And no, there is no moral, societal or personal imperative that we should be like that or good reasons for why this is desirable or justified behaviour. It's simple callous egotism, somewhere in the field bordering narcissism and sociopathy (many of them are in fact full-blown sociopaths and narcissts).

And it is anyone's prerogative to act like this if they so please. Just like it is the prerogative of other people to call such people dickheads because they don't want to live in a society that praises and values callous self absorbed ambition over actually caring about the work you do in and of itself and conducting oneself with a modicum of dignity.
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I disagree, Alonso doesn't owe Leverkusen anything. If he'd done badly in the job and they were close to the bottom of the table do you think it would be viewed as some kind of betrayal if Leverkusen had sacked Alonso? He's done a great job with them and has earned the right to move on should he want to.

I think you're also underestimating the job he has done this season if you think it's as simple as him deciding to go on and win the title with them again next season. Bayern have huge resource and the capability of blowing Leverkusen away in that regard. Beating them once in that situation is impressive, doing it again is a huge ask. The Ferguson comparison doesn't really work because United were the best team in England and had been for a number of years.
 
CM10 said:
How much further can he realistically take this Leverkusen team to where he's already taken them though? This season has been pretty much the perfect storm for him and they're unbeaten at the end of March. Maybe he'd like the opportunity to take Leverkusen into the Champions League and he obviously backs himself as a manager, but there's definitely some risk attached in staying for another season.

Alonso's done an exceptional job making them look as cohesive as they do, but I don't think think they even have the individual quality Klopp's Dortmund team had, for example, to help him along if he does stay on. Football is a fickle game and Alonso's stock is high right now, making that move wouldn't make him a dickhead. You have to be smart and choose the right moves at the right time for your career, both as a player and a manager. If Leverkusen have a huge drop off next season Alonso may have talked himself out of the top jobs he's being linked to now.


I tend to agree. I think he'd be better off going somewhere else before taking on a job of that enormity.
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I take it you haven't seen much of us this season?

This team has incredible quality and it is not some kind of lucky run. Sure, we might have scraped a few lucky points in the sense that you usually lose the occasional game when you've been better but there is real substance behind these results. We don't drop beyond a certain level in performance and overall play better than the opponent in 95% of the games. I haven't seen a team other than Bayern play to this level in the Bundesliga.

If he stays, we'll contend for the title next season as well, I'm completely sure of that. And I'm not sure how Bayern will look since Tuchel is IMO really underrated and right now they could either take a gamble with somebody who unproven like de Zerbi or sign somebody who has proven to be worse than their current manager. So Alonso definitely has chances to cement his legacy here and make it clear he's not a one season wonder. I don't see any risk of him being "exposed" or something like that if he stays.
 
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