Jamie O’Hara believes that Xabi Alonso would be ‘the perfect replacement’ for Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool but pointed out one potential ‘issue’ to hiring the 42-year-old.
The Spaniard was an outstanding midfielder at Anfield in the 2000s and is proving to be equally adept at management, guiding Bayer Leverkusen to the Bundesliga summit and having them on track to win their first-ever league title.
However, the talkSPORT pundit believes that, no matter who comes in to replace the current boss, they face an unenviable task in being the man to follow immediately after a vastly successful club legend.
O’Hara said: “The perfect scenario for me or the perfect replacement, I think right now, would be Xabi Alonso.
“The only issue he’s going to have – and he has done an amazing job at Bayer Leverkusen, he’s been a brilliant Liverpool player, he’s been also been a brilliant Real Madrid player, and I think he’s going to end up being their manager at one point – you go in after Jurgen Klopp.
“You see it after Sir Alex [Ferguson], you see it after big managers leave. The next manager in struggles because it’s a bit of a comedown, isn’t it?”
As we saw when David Moyes replaced Ferguson at Manchester United 10 years ago, or Unai Emery took over from Arsene Wenger at Arsenal in 2018, being the man to follow straight after a legendary figure can be a near-impossible job.
That’s the reality which awaits whoever comes in after Klopp at Liverpool, but if it’s to be Alonso, he seems better placed than anyone to take that challenge head-on, having built a rapport with the fans from his playing days and done a remarkable job at Leverkusen.
You can view O’Hara’s comments below (from 1:18), via talkSPORT on X (formerly Twitter):
first of all its sad losing our great manager but i think people need to search the proper truth the owners have turned on klopp saying he cant have any more players he was warned to use the young players thats the reason why he is leaving ..if we can get rid of the owners maybe we can keep klopp do u turn …u might want to google the reason few sites saying the same reason and if we do lose him theres no chance many people will watch liverpool while we have dodgy owners with money !! if the fans act now we might be able to get him to do a u turn am sure his wife will tell him she did tell him last season to stay becouse he would of left liverpool google it please !! truth !! is there !!