It was always clear to me that Xabi will become an elite coach.
But the step from being a coach in Germany to becoming a manager in England will always be huge.
Klopp struggled with the new responsibilities at the beginning but then adapted.
The new manager coming in will benefit from Klopps work and ideas.
We did not have a sporting director before Klopp came in, right?
Correct, someone from the same era and statue as Beckenbauer Johan Cruijff won the Europa League II with Ajax and Barcelona and the CL with Barcalona.
He is one of only 7 who has won the CL as a players and manager, the other 6 are: Muñoz, Trapattoni, Ancelotti, Rijkaard, Guardiola en Zidane
I’m fairly comfortable with any overhyping of Xabi.
It’s not him doing the hyping.
This move is as close as it gets to the old boot room philosophy, which brought so much success in the past.
I’m not even contemplating anyone other than Xabi
There’s also the rare case of Cristiano Ronaldo winning the EURO in 2016 as a player/coach 
Would Xavi be a Liverpool manager, great player, would made us play attractive football I guess.
That team was not great was it?
The team Klopp will leave behind would interest Xabi Alonso.
Wasn’t talking about the qualities of the team.
Xabi is not a manager at the moment. He’s ‘just’ a coach (trainer). That’s how it works for basically all the guys in charge in the Bundesliga. They don’t have big say in transfers and other things.
If the Bundesliga job is 5 days 12 hours the PL job probably comes close to 6 days 16 hours.
How? If Lijnders was next in line or Krawietz or Matos I could see the argument. From what I’m reading about him, Alonso doesn’t even play the same kind of football. Where’s the continuation?
So presumably the renewed structure we are putting in place, with a DOF e.g. Tim Steidten who has worked with Alonso before, will mitigate the additional pressure or workload he might feel, moving from a typical German structure to the Prem?
If Alonso’s forte is coaching and man management, we will want to make sure he is free to play to his strengths, as they are considerable. He’s not coming in to build a club - Klopp did that, at least this latest iteration (we’ve had greats before!)
The way I see it is Alonso would be coming in to benefit from, and build on Klopp’s excellent work. The fresh energy and fresh ideas will have a context within which to spark and ignite, with the excellent group of players he will inherit.
As for recruitment, I can’t imagine us ever allowing a toxic situation such as when Brendan had his signings and the recruitment team had theirs. I would imagine Xabi will be briefed and included, and his input will be consequential as it should be, but he won’t be the one who is bogged down with doing all the work on that side.
Play to his strengths and build up the structure around him, and watch us go!
In the meantime, come on Jurgen, we are all with you!
Who’s arguing?
Not saying you are arguing. I just don’t understand the reasoning.
I think the process is meant to be that the manager identifies areas he wants to improve, the stats guys identify targets, the director sees who is available and the manager speaks to candidates to make sure that they fit in with squad and the managers plans.
Needed, capable, available and no dickheads.
TBH, it’s nearer to when we signed Souness or Kenny’s second stint. They were familiar with the club but they hadn’t been an immediate part of the previous coaching regime.
It’s close enough for me.
Anyone who thinks we’re going to get a clone or carbon copy of the style of football Klopp plays is in for a shock.
I also struggle to see Xabi potentially coming here as some sort of link or continuation of the Boot Room.
Maybe you could say Houllier at the time was the last one (barely), with his short link up with Evans, who was part of the original. But I think we fans can look too much into sometimes mythical stuff like that and overrate it.
It was great from Shanks to Fagan or Kenny, but then maybe also partly reponsible why the club was left in the past in so many aspects in the 90’s onwards? Though such questions should be equally or more for people upstairs, running the club.
Perhaps certain problems appeared even before, slowly but surely, while the football on the pitch still managed to provide success for a few more years in the end 80’s.
Too much thinking “let’s not change anything, keep everything the same”? Sometimes, that can be dangerous. You need to look ahead if you want to remain successful. Keep one eye on the future, even when things are going well.
Anyway, back to the topic…
I do see certain aspects of Xabi as positives. Some links are important, some are less, some maybe more mythical in our heads. I’m more interested in his actual job and the football side, the rest could be a nice bonus in this case.
Liverpool’s public (fans and media) is relatively patient with it’s managers in modern times, compared to a lot of other places. I also want the club to remain top ambitious, that should be a given from their perspective.
Xabi’s history here might help him and the club get the patience needed, but he also might remember how the fans and the city breathes in certain situations.
That’s about it.
One thing that was pointed out regarding Alonso was that the season before (21/22), Leverkusen finished 3rd (13 points behind Bayern), and exited at the round of 16 in the Europa League. Then they had that horrific start in 22/23, and he arrived to turn it around.
I think the point was that Leverkusen weren’t this awful team, but they’d had a truly horrific start. In that 21/22 season where they finished 3rd, they had Frimpong, Wirtz, Palacios, Tah, Hincapie, Schick, Diaby. However, when you look at the squad, you can see there’s been a high turnover of players since.
I’ve seen 1 or 2 videos on Youtube, where the content creator was like ‘oh, ok, so Leverkusen weren’t all that bad, and they had a core there,’ but then you look at the ages of those players, again, the high turnover of players on a modest budget, and then to completely transform the playing style is remarkable.
I do think Alonso will look at us, Bayern, and Real Madrid (despite Ancelotti signing a 2 year extension), and see that we’ll offer him the time needed. He could be with us for the same amount of time as Klopp and only be 51/52 years old. Most people talk about him being here for 5 years, and he’d only be 47/48. He could literally give himself time to manage Real and Bayern, if he harbours those ambitions.
I do think as a fanbase, we may have to adjust our expectations next season, just while Alonso and his coaching staff bed in, and get used to understanding what he truly has to manage, and being the focal point of a club the size of Liverpool. Grasping the potential of the players, their strengths, weaknesses, the youth set-up, and all with potentially European football and League Cup football blocking out vital training ground time. It could be similar to Guardiola’s first season at City, where he finished 3rd, while implementing his ideas, and then it all accelerated the seasons after.
Xabi seems to be the clear fans’ favourite and media darling, but I wonder if the club owners genuinely contemplate Xabi as Klopp’s successor.
I dont get the concern of Bayern beating us to his signature. Managing them is a completely different preposition to playing for them, meaning very few ambitious managers would be particularly interested. Bayern largely go for one of two sorts - a relatively unfancied guy who knows he will be a cog in a wheel and wouldnt expect to get a job at another club competing for european honours, or big names who are currently out of work and view it as a paycheck.
You art captivates me, while your analysis irritates.
First time I’ve heard of that theory. Think it’s more the language barrier sometimes or the willingness to put that effort in. Recently, among others, they had Pep and Ancelotti, foreign proven winners. One put in a year’s effort to learn German, the other managed somehow. Mourinho expressed interested to complete winning in the best leagues. Xabi obviously already has that in the bag and he was there. Right now, what might be a bit fishy at Bayern for a coach with other top offers on table is the upstairs functioning with many changes in last years and a little loss of direction. We also have our own issues in that field to solve, people to hire. Certainly not Bayern overall as a club. We shouldn’t necessarily be concerned, but it’s not like they cannot compete for a Xabi Alonso right now, they absolutely can. But Xabi might look at outside Germany for his post-Leverkusen move. Then have the doors open for Bayern in the future, depending on how his career goes, etc.