Xabi Alonso is out of work, but not out of fashion. Far from it. After a brief and bruising spell at Real Madrid, the Basque coach is being lined up for one of the biggest jobs in English football – and possibly two.
According to British outlet The Sun, Liverpool and Manchester City have both marked Alonso down as a leading candidate to take over next summer. Two clubs with very different identities, one shared idea: he is their next project.
From invincible in Germany to the sack in Madrid
Alonso’s coaching reputation exploded at Bayer Leverkusen. He didn’t just win the Bundesliga in 2023–24. He stormed it. An unbeaten league campaign, the title wrapped in style, and the German Cup added for good measure. Leverkusen became one of Europe’s most compelling sides, and Alonso the game’s most fashionable young coach.
That momentum seemed to carry him straight to the Santiago Bernabéu. Real Madrid moved quickly last summer, and the expectation in Spain was clear: this was not a stopgap, this was a long-term project. The club believed it had secured the next great Madrid coach.
It lasted less than half a season.
A 3-2 defeat to Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final in January proved fatal. The loss cut deeper than a single result, triggering a swift decision from the hierarchy and ending Alonso’s tenure before it had truly settled. The shock wasn’t that Madrid acted ruthlessly – that is in the club’s DNA – but that they did so with a manager many assumed would be given time.
Now that abrupt ending has placed him back on the market, and the queue is already forming.
Liverpool: the emotional pull
Liverpool know Alonso. Liverpool trust Alonso. He arrived there as a player in 2004 and left as a Champions League winner, forever tied to Istanbul 2005 and one of the club’s most cherished modern memories.
That history matters at Anfield. It always has.
The report suggests Alonso is seen as the ideal successor if Arne Slot’s position becomes untenable. The Dutchman, 47, is under growing pressure after a damaging 4-0 defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals, coupled with a dip in league form. For a club that measures itself against the very top, that kind of slump quickly sharpens the discussion around the manager.
Alonso, with his Liverpool past and his recent success in Germany, offers a powerful combination of sentiment and substance. He fits the romantic narrative. He also fits the modern, high-pressing, possession-dominant model the club has tried to refine in recent years.
The question is whether Liverpool move early – or whether they are beaten to him.
Manchester City: succession planning at the Etihad
Because across the divide, Manchester City are watching too.
Pep Guardiola’s future looms over everything at the Etihad. Doubts are gathering about whether he will stay beyond the end of the current season, with multiple reports indicating this could be his final campaign in charge. When a dynasty coach edges towards the exit, the next name becomes more than a rumour; it becomes a strategic priority.
The Sun reports that City also view Alonso as a candidate to succeed Guardiola if the Catalan steps away. The logic is obvious. Alonso’s Leverkusen played with control, positional intelligence and relentless structure – traits that echo Guardiola’s philosophy, even if expressed in his own way.
City’s hierarchy will not want a violent break from the Guardiola era. They will want evolution, not revolution. Alonso offers that kind of bridge: young, tactically sharp, schooled in elite dressing rooms, comfortable under the glare.
So the battle lines are clear. On one side, the emotional gravity of Anfield. On the other, the clinical, trophy-fuelled machine of the Etihad.
A manager at the centre of the storm
For now, Alonso waits. He has no team, but he has leverage. Clubs of this size do not often chase the same coach at the same time without a bidding war of ideas, influence and vision.
Liverpool can point to shared history and a fanbase already singing his name. Manchester City can point to stability, resources and a structure built to sustain success long after any single manager leaves.
Alonso will have to choose what he wants his next chapter to say about him. Does he walk back into Anfield as the returning hero under pressure to restore glory? Or does he step into Guardiola’s shadow and try to extend one of the most dominant eras English football has seen?
Either way, the Premier League looks set to welcome him back – this time on the touchline, and right at the heart of its biggest power struggle.
