Xabi Alonso: Bayer Leverkusen manager

Chelsea won both CL in similar form, even fired the manager both times mid season
But they did it while having a squad structure that United hasn't reached in a decade, which made it relatively easy to get going again. United lack the foundation for such a run. And I don't think they could poach Alonso mid season to do this, so this is slightly offtopic anyways.
 
What's idiotic about it?
It was tongue in cheek but also just think this group of players is going to be too much for a rookie manager. They will play well for a bit and then slowly revert back to type. If you think Alonso is the next big thing, you don’t want him coming in now.
 
Xabi will be as great a manager as he was a player. So much class, so much football brain.
I guess he will be the successor of Anceloti, but whatever club can snatch him up will be a force for the next years.

Even if you see him in training, hard to dismiss a trainer who can still join a training session and from the outside you can´t point out that hes not a player anymore.
Additionally he was always the strategos as a player and transfered this to his coaching position seemlessly.
I think he brings all the benefits of a Zidane and on top a humble and disciplined nature that makes him just so likeabale.

For Man Utd that could really be the big turnaround. Especially since to get him you would need to take all his staff and he would be in a really strong position in the club.
What manager had really a strong position coming in, in the last years. Mostly they had to be happy to be signed.
 
Former Liverpool captain Matt Busby did alright at United to be fair...
 
Like him, seems to read the game well, but I feel we probably have to appoint someone who knows the PL as a manager better? Maybe he still remembers the intense competition from his time playing here?
 
Like him, seems to read the game well, but I feel we probably have to appoint someone who knows the PL as a manager better? Maybe he still remembers the intense competition from his time playing here?
He immediately had an impact in the BL as well when he arrived, that could be an indicator that he can pull it off in the PL as well. Generally lots of managers arrive in the PL and do well immediately like Ange, while others fail and never get a grip of the league and some are in between, so this is something a club wanting to sign a foreign manager surely has to have a deep look into.

Playing experience might definitely help, but probably isn't relevant for the PL for him anymore. He left Liverpool in 2009, which was a completely different era of PL football. He left Bayern in 2017, so that was just a five year gap between being in the BL as a player and as a manager, so maybe it did help him here.
 
Bring him to the Theatre! Appointing him or Carrick would be the best thing this club has done in a decade!
Carrick would buddy up with Harry, Rashy & Sancho so I'd doubt it.

Anyways we're getting Potter if ETH goes, so I'd prefer the devil we know. No managers going to work really well here until we get a top class director of football, so pissing in the wind chopping and changing managers....
 
Worth a try in getting him I think, Leverkusen was struggling before he arrived if I remember correctly.

Think he's earmarked to succeed Ancelotti at Real, though.
 
Will he come here? Considering he played for the scouses.
Reports indicate that he has a release clause valid for his ex-clubs Real, Bayern and Liverpool. So it looks like he has clear preferences, but probably that doesn't mean that he isn't open to other options, just that negotiations with Leverkusen could be more difficult.
 
Hands off, ya bums :nono:We need him.
 
He immediately had an impact in the BL as well when he arrived, that could be an indicator that he can pull it off in the PL as well. Generally lots of managers arrive in the PL and do well immediately like Ange, while others fail and never get a grip of the league and some are in between, so this is something a club wanting to sign a foreign manager surely has to have a deep look into.

Playing experience might definitely help, but probably isn't relevant for the PL for him anymore. He left Liverpool in 2009, which was a completely different era of PL football. He left Bayern in 2017, so that was just a five year gap between being in the BL as a player and as a manager, so maybe it did help him here.
“I was in Munich and I spoke with (former Liverpool midfielder) Xabi Alonso. He said, ‘You have to adapt, (it’s) the second ball, the second ball’,” Guardiola said in 2016. “I thought, ‘It’s OK, second ball, OK’. But really, you have to adapt to the second ball, and the third ball, and the fourth. I never before was focused on that, never.” I think Xabi Alonso will do well in the Premier League when he becomes a manager there =)
 
He has Real Madrid and Liverpool written over him for his next job.
 
Desperate times for you United fans if you think a Liverpool legend would come and manage United :lol:

He’s certainly doing wonders in the Bundesliga! They are playing such good football too!
 
Desperate times for you United fans if you think a Liverpool legend would come and manage United :lol:

He’s certainly doing wonders in the Bundesliga! They are playing such good football too!

Matt Busby, Wayne Rooney, Cantona, Rio, Solskjaer...we've never been averse to signing rivals' staff as long as they're willing to see the light!
 
Leave him be. One of the good guys and your team would break him just like the rest with the nonsense that’s been going over there. Get rid of the parasite owners and the cloud gets lifted. Until then it’s a graveyard for managers with the culture there allowed by the owners.
 
Good news for Xabi Alonso.

The Supreme Court confirms the acquittal of Xabi Alonso for fraud to the Treasury.

The Bayer Leverkusen coach had refused to reach an agreement with the Tax Agency and the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Xabi Alonso has definitively won his legal battle against the Tax Agency. The Supreme Court on Wednesday confirmed the acquittal of the former footballer, current coach of Bayer Leverkusen, and his two tax advisors of three crimes against the public treasury in 2010, 2011 and 2012 for which the Prosecutor's Office asked him for two and a half years in prison.

Meanwhile, other footballers accused of tax crimes made a pact with the Treasury to avoid higher penalties.

I wonder if the accusations against Messi and Cr7 for tax fraud would also have this same end. They decided to make a deal and pay a big amount of money.
 
Cristóbal Montoro.

He was in charge of the Ministry of Finance on 2 occasions; the first between 2000 and 2004, with José María Aznar, and the second between 2011 and 2018, with Mariano Rajoy.

1- Anti-Corruption Investigates Whether the Office Founded by Former Minister Montoro "Created a Network of Influence" in the Treasury.

2- The Treasury investigated 'uncomfortable' journalists and politicians pointed out by Cristóbal Montoro.

3- Montoro promoted a controversial tax amnesty that included prominent figures such as Luis Bárcenas and Rodrigo Rato, as well as more than 32,000 tax evaders and 700 senior officials.

4- And many more cases of corruption.

The Supreme Court acquits Xabi Alonso of tax fraud: The harassment of the Treasury, which called for prison for the footballer, is added to the scandals of false evidence and use of the Tax Agency as a form of media extortion, factory of false headlines and persecution of all political dissent to the Government.


Xabi Alonso

"In several instances I had won up to three times, but the tax authorities kept appealing, the prosecutors were persecuting me. They appealed until this week when they did so in the Supreme Court of Spain, they took my case to the last instance, and I told them again that he had done it well, that it was not illegal.

"It wasn't easy because I had pressure from the tax authorities... they made a request for a conviction when there was no reason for it. What they wanted was for us to reach an agreement under pressure, but I was convinced that I had done everything right. , I had faith in justice and I wanted to fight until the end.
 
Operation Catalonia

The Court confirms the acquittal of Sandro Rosell for tax crime. It is the fifth criminal acquittal of the former Barça president.

Rosell is suing against the 'Operation Catalunya' plot that fabricated false evidence against him.


Sandro Rosell had requested compensation of almost 30 million euros for damages, after having been unjustly imprisoned for two years (2017-19) for crimes of which he was finally acquitted. The former president of Barça, however, will only receive 18,000 euros. The Ministry of Justice opposes the multimillion-dollar settlement requested by the Barcelona businessman, where the majority of the compensation corresponded to two contracts that were canceled while he was in the jail.

In addition, he wanted 405,000 euros for reputational damage, 320,000 for emotional damage and 200,000 for psychological damage. In parallel, he wanted compensation for everything he had spent on lawyers (668,904 euros), 62,950 on traveling his family to prison and an additional 34,660 in interest.
 
Posting walls of text instead of links or sources. A Barca newbie giving me a deja vu!
 
Desperate times for you United fans if you think a Liverpool legend would come and manage United :lol:

He’s certainly doing wonders in the Bundesliga! They are playing such good football too!

Everyone will remember him as Real Madrid legend so the joke is on you.
 
Everyone will remember him as Real Madrid legend so the joke is on you.
I don't even remember his at Real, certainly a Liverpool legend for me. Having said that, If he's good enough, I would overlook the connection. Back in the days, he was the one Liverpool player that I would have liked at United.
 
31 points after 11 matches is Bundesliga record (shared with Pep's Bayern). Will be interesting to see how well his team keeps getting results, but this is absolutely impressive.