Liverpool may yet get caught up in the fallout of some big news coming out of Bayern Munich today.
The Reds are set to go head-to-head with the German giants for the services of Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso.
Prior to today, Liverpool were seemingly leading the race and had Alonso’s preference. With Thomas Tuchel still in charge in Munich, it wasn’t even clear whether Bayern would be needing a new head coach.
But Tuchel has today been relieved of his duties. The former Chelsea boss will remain in place until the end of the season, at which point Bayern will look for a successor. Their preferred choice is said to be Alonso, and this is something that journalist Fabrizio Romano has reiterated on X this morning.
Thankfully, Romano also suggests that Liverpool have not been deterred by Tuchel’s sacking and ‘remain keen’ on Alonso as top choice to replace Jurgen Klopp.
“Liverpool and FC Bayern remain both keen on appointing Xabi Alonso as new head coach at the end of the season,” reports the journalist. “Discussions to follow. There’s no formal release clause into his contract at Bayer but he will be allowed to leave in case he decides to try new chapter.”
Tuchel set for Bayern departure
Following three losses in all competitions – including a damaging one to Alonso’s Leverkusen – Tuchel had appeared to be on the brink.
That Bayern have moved quickly to free up the manager’s position ahead of next season shows just how serious they are about bringing in their title rival’s boss.
Liverpool should not take that lightly. Given that they knew about Klopp’s impending exit from as far back as November, the Reds should be further along with Alonso than Bayern by now.
But that doesn’t mean that taking over another of his former clubs won’t be attractive to the Spaniard.
On paper, we’d argue that the Liverpool job is actually far more appealing at the moment. The Reds have a bright young squad sprinkled with world-class stalwarts.
Bayern obviously have top players as well, but there seems to be a certain lack of direction in Munich at the moment. With players like Joshua Kimmich pushing to leave and Alphonso Davies too, all doesn’t seem to be well.
Perhaps that won’t matter to Alonso. But as a man who obviously thinks a lot about the game and weighs things up, hopefully he’ll see that now isn’t the best time to join the Bundesliga champions.
Of course, following Klopp is no walk in the park either. However, having been away from Liverpool for 15 years now, we think Xabi will see it as high time for a return to Merseyside.
This fight is now very much on. Nice to hear that Liverpool aren’t backing down.
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