Liverpool could soon be looking for a new manager after registering their ninth defeat in 12 matches.
The Reds completed their worst run since the 1950s after being humiliated 4-1 by PSV Eindhoven at Anfield in the Champions League.
Arne Slot is standing on the brink of the sack, with the Dutchman showing no signs of being able to correct Liverpool‘s astonishing slump.
Should Liverpool sack Arne Slot?
The Liverpool owners may trust Slot for a little while longer, but it feels like the writing may be on the wall already.
There is already plenty of debate amongst Liverpool fans over who could and should take over if Slot gets the boot. As the Reds consider their options, they could look to a handful of former players who have already shown interest in the top job at Anfield.
Steven Gerrard has made no secret of Liverpool wish
For a long time it had felt as though Steven Gerrard was destined to take the manager’s job at Liverpool.
Unfortunately, fate has taken the legendary former captain down a different path.
At the very beginning of his managerial career Gerrard had felt like the natural successor to Jurgen Klopp. As the former Liverpool manager revealed in 2017, he had even told him as much to his face.
“I asked him [Gerrard] directly: ‘What would you like?’ He said he wanted to be manager,” Klopp said. Maybe the stars could still align in these exceptional circumstances.
Robbie Fowler had hopes of managing Liverpool
Plenty of Gerrard’s former Anfield teammates have also tried their hand at management, with fellow Liverpool academy graduate Robbie Fowler one of the less heralded to have had a go.
Fowler has spent his coaching career largely in Australia, but in 2020 he admitted that he had designs on making it to the Premier League.
Asked by Sky Sports if he had dreams of becoming England manager one day, Fowler let slip that he would rather take charge of his former club.
“I’d settle for Liverpool first!” he replied. “But obviously I want Jurgen to stay there forever because he’s brilliant.”
Harry Kewell had big ambitions
While Gerrard and Fowler’s status as Liverpool legends improved their chances of taking the Reds job, other former players have also made it clear that they’d love to return, with rather less chance of success.
What Liverpool legends are saying about Arne Slot’s future
One of those is Harry Kewell, who won a Champions League and FA Cup with Liverpool under Rafa Benitez.
Since retiring Kewell has embarked on a nomadic coaching career taking in spells in the English lower leagues as well as in Japan and, currently, Vietnam.
Speaking in 2015, though, the Australian admitted that he had bigger ambitions. Ones which will now never be realised.
“[I would] love to [coach Liverpool];” Kewell said. “I’m sure every player [and] every manager out there would love to manage probably the biggest club in the world.
“I’m no different; it’s a great club but you have to be worthy of it. But football and coaching are chalk and cheese and you have to go back to square one and learn again.”
Xabi Alonso is the most realistic candidate
If Gerrard, Fowler and Kewell look to have let any chance they had of managing Liverpool slip away, another former teammate, Xabi Alonso, may have better luck.
Alonso is potentially in the frame to replace Slot despite taking charge of Real Madrid in the summer.
Speaking to journalist Guillem Balague before embarking on his managerial career, Alonso admitted he’d love to take charge at Anfield one day.
“Yes for sure, I have dreamt of that, but first I have to prove myself and prepare,” Alonso said.
“If I decide somewhere along the way to take my chances as a manager, my link, my commitment, my passion with Liverpool is there. Why not? We will see if we can cross paths in our ways.”
With Slot on the brink and Alonso facing trouble in Madrid, perhaps those paths will cross sooner than anticipated.
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