Jurgen Klopp surprised the whole world when he announced that he would be stepping down this season.Liverpool has since been on the lookout for a new manager and has been eyeing several, most notably Xabi Alonso, who has also played for Anfield during his playing days.
Liverpool are not the only club interested in the Spanish coach, as Bayern Munich, led by Thomas Tuchel, who is leaving the team at the end of the season, is also on the list of first choices, and speculation is rife that discussions have already taken place.
Bayer Leverkusen, who moved to the Bundesliga midway through last season, have transformed themselves into an incomparably strong team this season.
They are undefeated in the domestic league, many points ahead of the absolute champions, Bayern, and are close to winning the Meisterschalle in only their second year.
Still only 42 years old and inexperienced in the top flight, Bernd Schuster, who has worked for clubs such as Real Madrid, Beşiktaş, and Malaga, advised the young coach to take his time in making a decision, based on his own career.
“Xabi’s situation reminds me of a similar situation I was in a few years ago,”
“Back then, I coached my team Getafe into the European Cup and then went to Real Madrid. Afterwards I thought to myself that I would have liked to have played with Getafe as a smaller club in the European Cup.”
“This was the first time in Europe for this club in its history and would therefore have been a very nice story. So, it’s hard to decide.”
“I would understand Xabi in every decision he makes. But what I can say for sure is that sometimes you have to be careful not to want everything too quickly.”
“As a young coach you still have a lot to learn. And if, like Xabi, you already have your own team that he has strongly brought together and developed, it is also a really interesting task to go one step further with this team.”
SportBILD