Xabi Alonso paid for his decision to join Real Madrid when Liverpool came to decide on their new manager, says Tony Cascarino.
Alonso had been many fans’ choice to take over from Arne Slot this summer, and with the Spaniard available following his sacking at Madrid, everything seemed to be lining up.
When Liverpool passed up on the chance to hire Alonso and allowed him to join Chelsea, it had looked certain that the reason would be because they were keeping faith in Slot for another year.
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However, Saturday’s surprise news that Slot has himself been sacked destroys that theory. Instead, it now looks as though Liverpool never fancied Alonso at all.
Andoni Iraola appears poised to join the Reds instead, and according to Cascarino, Liverpool’s decision to overlook Alonso may have been some form of payback for their former midfielder choosing to wait for the job at Madrid in 2024 instead of joining Liverpool.
Liverpool make Alonso pay for Real Madrid decision
When Liverpool hired Slot in 2024, it had widely been appreciated that Alonso was one of the other candidates. But the 44-year-old took himself out of the running early on, insisting that he wanted to continue building at Bayer Leverkusen, for whom he had just won the league and cup double.
12 months later, though, Alonso left Leverkusen for Real Madrid, and according to Cascarino, this may have been the move which ultimately cost him the chance to replace Slot at Liverpool.
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“Xabi for me was never going to happen because he took Madrid over Liverpool,” the former Republic of Ireland striker said on TalkSPORT.
“I don’t know if that’s a given, but when he went to Real Madrid, which I don’t blame him for doing that, because it’s one of the greatest if not the greatest job in world football.
“But because he sidetracked Liverpool, or maybe hadn’t even been offered the job, but what I would say is that he went to Madrid.”
On Iraola, Cascarino says Alonso’s fellow Basque is ‘the most attractive manager Liverpool could have got’, citing his intelligence and style of play as reasons for fans to be excited.
“I watched Bournemouth earlier on in the season and I came away and I was applauding them. What a team they’ve put together,” he said. “He plays an amazing, adventurous, brave type of football which I think Liverpool want and feel like they have to have.
“Richard Hughes spoke about his meetings with Iraola and spoke about one of the smartest people he’d ever met. He’s a law student. That doesn’t mean you’re a great football coach, but there’s nothing unturned with him. The way he wants to play, I think it’s the best signing.”
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