Mohamed Salah will not play for Liverpool Football Club next season. Beyond the departure of the club legend, any major changes to the squad and coaching staff remain far from certain. Everyone agrees the 2025-26 has fallen well short of expectation. There’s less agreement regarding why.
For many, though, a parting of ways with head coach Arne Slot seems likely, and if Slot is to depart there’s really only one name that would unify the fanbase and in the process help to revivify the flagging mood around the club. That, of course, is Xabi Alonso. The ex-Red rose to managerial stardom with Bayer Leverkusen but then stumbled at Real Madrid.
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Next up could be a move back to Anfield for the Rafa Benitez-era midfielder, and in Germany Bild at least think it’s an all but done deal.
According to the report, Alonso is the preferred option for Liverpool and Liverpool is the preferred option for Alonso—though despite being out of work following his Madrid departure, he wouldn’t consider joining mid-season. Moreover, Alonso is said to have actually been the club’s top choice back in 2024.
At the time, though, Alonso wanted to stay loyal to Bayer Leverkusen, at the time nearing the final stages of an unprecedented unbeaten campaign that saw them win not just the Bundesliga title but also win the German Cup and finish runners-up in the Europa League.
In the simplest terms, the timing of it all simply didn’t line up, and so Liverpool quickly closed on Slot while Alonso stayed in Germany for another season before making his ill-fated switch to Madrid where he proved unable to fully handle that squad’s collection of gargantuan egos as well as Carlo Ancelotti had.
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For Liverpool, that’s an aspect of player management few would expect to come into play, and according to Bild the Reds and director of football operations Michael Edwards have kept in contact with Alonso since all sides agreed the timing wasn’t right in 2024—and now, the timing seems right.
Alternately, of course, it could all be a lot of rumour mongering spun out of nothing and Liverpool could end up themselves remaining committed to Slot despite this season’s struggles. This, though, is the first seemingly serious suggestion Alonso to Liverpool is in the works.