One report on Wednesday evening has hinted at some potentially fantastic news for Liverpool regarding Xabi Alonso.
According to TEAMtalk, there have been ‘positive talks’ between the Reds and the 42-year-old’s camp, and the Merseyside club have reportedly offered the Bayer Leverkusen manager a three-year contract to take over from Jurgen Klopp when the latter departs at the end of this season.
If an agreement is reached, a formal announcement will be delayed until the incumbent’s reign officially ends, and it’s claimed that the Spaniard would see the opportunity to manage LFC as too good to turn down, despite him thoroughly enjoying his stint with the runaway Bundesliga leaders.
Encouragingly for Liverpool, Alonso is believed to prefer the Anfield job over Bayern Munich, which he believes wouldn’t be a step forward for him given that he’s already in a position to dominate the German top flight with his current club.
Our initial instinct is to take this report with a pinch of salt, given that other outlets have claimed that Bayern would be Alonso’s preference.
Also, the trusted Fabrizio Romano has repeatedly insisted that Liverpool want to fill the sporting director vacancy at Anfield before they hire Klopp’s successor, with speculation abounding regarding a possible return for Michael Edwards if he’s given greater control over football operations in L4.
However, if TEAMtalk’s update on the Leverkusen boss proves to be accurate, it’d offer Reds fans their biggest hope yet that the 42-year-old may return to the club that he graced as a player for five years in the 2000s.
Whoever is given the LFC job immediately after Klopp will inevitably face an extremely difficult act to follow, but Alonso’s outstanding work at the BayArena suggests that he could be better equipped than any other realistic candidate to keep things travelling in an upward curve on Merseyside.
It should be quite interesting to see if other outlets corroborate this evening’s reports about the apparent contract offer to the Spaniard, and whether a return to Anfield would indeed be his preferred option were he to leave his current employers.