Nah. A former player who claims to have unfinished business and dreams of being Liverpool’s mgr has just snubbed us.Loved him as a player. But he did leave. And he’s no Klopp. We’ll revisit this in 5 yrs?
Xabi Alonso: Bayer Leverkusen INVINCIBLES manager
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Same for Alonso tbf. And Ancelotti was Brazil bound, but then we got reports of Alonso extending his own contract to 2026 and subsequently us doing the same with Carlo. The reports also mentioned Alonso notifying Perez of this extension (whether true or not…)
Not saying we’ll get him but it does seem more likely.
Are you drunk or just persisting with fanciful silliness?
What are you on? My opinion is we wouldn’t take him after a snub. Leave it at that.
That would make sense. I can see him at Madrid which I suppose is a natural fit.
says it all about how much more he fancies the Madrid job than the others
It say's he want's to stay at Leverkusen this season. Anything else is purely fictional.
Alonso is simply being smart. For example, the Liverpool job will be available again next summer with much lower expectations, following Klopp is a doomed endeavour.
They are, but if he's confident in his own abilities, staying put and building a legacy at Leverkusen could well be seen as the best decision in a few years' time...and elite managers usually have that "arrogance" about them
Really depends on how that failure unfolds, and how Liverpool or Bayern are doing at that point. If Liverpool get Amorim and they're fighting for the league every season, whilst Alonso is sacked at Madrid, they won't have reason to go near him.
And Leverkusen is his first job at a top flight club, before he was only managing Spanish 3rd division. By staying at Leverkusen he can now 'practice' a CL club season in a much calmer, grateful and less demanding/expectant environment with a team he has helped forming. I can only commend him on his smartness. All of Real, Bayern, and Liverpool will be in need of a manager in the coming years again, he will have his pick again with a bigger sense of experience.
The way real wouldn't take Mbappe after snubbing them.
If we need a a manager and he's the best available, we'll obviously try for him. Anything is is just small time pettiness. It's not like he told us to feck off. He's being loyal to his current club.
This. Why should it be more ambitious to move to a super club than trying to beat those superclubs with the team you built yourself?
I think it shows more balls to stay where he is and back himself to do it again next season, despite the fact he’ll possibly lose a load of his best players.
He’ll know there’s a lot at risk not taking the big jobs this summer, if he doesn’t, shooting stars can burn out quickly in football. If he’d taken the Liverpool job they’d probably have given him 2-3years without too much pressure, so in a way that would be easier than staying at Bayer at least another year where he is now under intense scrutiny. People will be waiting for him to fail to trot out the “told you sos”
If he took the Bayern job or Liverpool job and bombed, he’d be criticised for going too early and should have stayed.
He knows the Bayern job has tilted somewhat back to the internally dysfunctional Hollywood FC days and the Liverpool job is basically being the manager who has to follow a GOAT manager.
He knows the Bayern job has tilted somewhat back to the internally dysfunctional Hollywood FC days and the Liverpool job is basically being the manager who has to follow a GOAT manager.
Only Frimpong could maybe leave. Not sure Wirtz will be in a hurry to go to Bayern this summer.
He's right to wait it out and dodge Liverpool if there is a chance to take over from Ancelotti. A full season watching from afar how Mbappe-Vini-Rodrygo is working out while getting some CL experience without too much pressure. Win-win situation.
Contracts are renewed for aesthetic reasons and managers permanence depend purely on results not on when the contract ends. I would say Mbappe diminishes Alonso's chances more than anything else but in any case we are very easily discarding the idea that he really wants to stay in Leverkusen for the sake of it.
Part of it reeked of Keys saying Alonso didn't have the balls to come to England and test himself in the ''best, most competitive league in the world''. He's only 42, not everybody needs to be a manage a giant club at the first opportunity.
There are multiple lanes that show ambition.
Also, we as fans need to stop projecting our ideas of ambition on managers; nothing about Xabi so far has shown he is not ambitious
No it won't. This season is sufficient evidence that he knows what he is doing. Klopp had a downturn in Dortmund but his best was enough for Liverpool and they reaped the benefits of not overanalyzing.
Gotta love the same English pundits who were drooling over alonso are now throwing a strop about him having the audacity to turn the chance tobe a part of the oh so amazing premier league
Yeah, it’s pretty embarrassing. It’s a very small-time attitude. And Richard Keys speaks as if he’s a representative the PL, when he’s nothing of the sort.
The Liverpool media charm offensive fell on deaf ears, first Bellingham and now this
Don't let it fool you Bellingham wanted the move just like Mbappe but they choose to buy Big Mac and Endo and of course picked Diaz over Mbappe.
The Liverpool job next season is a poisoned pill, whoever takes it is likely to fail spectacularly, so makes sense he'd turn it down. Bayern, less so, but they're also still a club in turmoil
With how well he's done this season, he knows barring next season being a complete disaster, he's going to have opportunities at huge clubs by 2025 anyways, so I get why he'd prefer to stay put for now
With how well he's done this season, he knows barring next season being a complete disaster, he's going to have opportunities at huge clubs by 2025 anyways, so I get why he'd prefer to stay put for now
The worst thing about English football are the pundits. Absolutely dreadful. A shame when so much of the rest of it is great.
Referees then pundits a close second.
I don't know why they take that sort of national pride in it. It's by far the most internationalised of the major leagues, and pretty much all of what has made it the biggest league post SAF, players and managers, is foreign.
Annoys me too that if you’re not a player/manager from Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich, you’re some unknown, unwashed heathen from some second rate team in their eyes. Mainstream English punditry is the easiest job in the world because it’s so lazy.
What do you mean "post SAF"? SAF himself was a foreigner in England and part of that development
Do you watch Bayern on a regular basis though? They need to overhaul their squad significantly with lots of rotten apples and it remains to be seen whether Eberl can do that in such a context asap and if Hoeness really lets him do it.
Liverpool on the other hand would have a gigantic legacy but imho a squad that‘s quite balanced yet could still be moulded with 1-2 high profile signings which should be feasible. Doubt the fans and media would immediately turn against him if he‘s struggling a bit at the beginning.
Pool also tends to give their managers much more time than Bayern - significantly so in fact.
But the smart thing to do is stay at Leverkusen, keep most of the squad together + couple of smart signings and play some CL footy to get comfortable with it to take over a brilliant, young and hungry Real in 2025.
Don't forget Caicedo and Lavia in between.
He's not a foreigner like Pep or Klopp are foreign, and his team always had a huge British presenceWhat do you mean "post SAF"? SAF himself was a foreigner in England and part of that development
Thinking of a Scottish manager as a foreigner in the PL is silly, tbh.What do you mean "post SAF"? SAF himself was a foreigner in England and part of that development
Well, he isn't English, is he?
No, but I suspect a Scot wouldn't describe themselves as a foreigner in England. It may be confusing if you're not British tbf.
that squad is going to have a very visceral reaction to whoever ends up replacing Klopp. Unless they hire one of his assistants. What matters about the next liverpool manager isn't who they will be, it's that they won't be Klopp
While not being British I worked in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales but funnily enough never in England. I think I know what you mean and understand it. Probably "foreigner" really isn't the right word for it, but I am not sure what would be.
One of the few up and coming managers who have made a smart decision, keep developing and expanding his skills at Leverkusen before making the step above. He's still young and has time on his side.
Case in point is that agbonlahor, cundy, sturridge and Chris Sutton have punditry roles.
the ones that don’t like the english are foren and should be forced to leave the country and go somewhere godforsaken, like france.
the trans ones that wear those skirts are foren. anyone who eats that muck haggis; ditto. the ones that bang on about scottish oil and natural resources? throw them in with the nonces. the ones that try to spend there scottish money in are shops? bring back hanging.
rangers fans like the monarchy and as such although technically foren, there fine by me to visit for the day and would be welcome at my local for a pint, some proper english curry, and some renditions of good save the king, sung in rounds. but no more than that. i would feel very uneasy if one was asylumed into a house on my street or if one of there kids tried to talk to one of mine.