Yeah, I would agree with that. Xabi, then Amorim. I still think there’ll be a shortlist of 3 with those 2 and then? De Zerbi, probably, maybe Frank. The first offer will be made to one of those; doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll be accepted.
How far down that list do you have to go before Pep Lijnders becomes the best choice? I’m all in on Alonso, but anything beyond that seems like a roll of the dice.
The amount of noise around Alonso tells me it’s more likely Amorim. He’s more like Klopp than Alonso, at least from what I have seen. If’n I were a betting man (which I’m not), Alonso was destined for Bayern and the departure of Klopp’s has simply hurried up Bavarians, similar to our sacking Rodgers when it was obvious Mourinho was going to be sacked.
I'm sure everyone has seen the crazy news that FSG are trying to entice Edwards back with full control of football ops?
I'd like to see him back. I wonder if there was an issue between the coaching staff and Edwards previously which now will obviously not be a problem ?
Yeah, saw this in some of my news aggregators... supposedly coming from Paul Joyce, who's usually pretty reliable w/r Liverpool news. Would potentially be great, it true. To me the bigger picture is that is appears that FSG are pursuing both director of football and manager searches simultaneously. Which in itself is good news - one ought to be able to "walk and chew gum" at the same time. It might also be a way to enhance recruitment if you can pull it off. For example, tell Amorim or Alonso, "if you come we're trying to line up Edwards, and we think he's interested..." and then tell Edwards, "if you come we're communicating with Amorim (or Alonso), and they are indicating they are interested if you join..." The other interesting tidbit is that they are lining up interviews with Amorim in addition to Alonso. This is also a good sign. I remember reading in some article recently that Amorim actually grades out even better than Alonso in many of the coaching metrics - so I wouldn't at all be surprised if he ends up as our next manager if Alonso doesn't pan out for one reason or another.
I think it probably had more to do with not having resources to purchase players and/or sheer exhaustion. Was nice to see that he apparently turned down ManU outright when they came calling.
A lot of the talk I'm reading is that as Klopp gained more and more power/ influence (re transfers), Edwards had less (or felt he had less). Pure speculation at this point.
He turned down lots of jobs. The fact that he didn’t take on another job makes me believe that we should take him at his word that he wanted a break from football.
I almost would have preferred if we said Pep was taking the reins, Boot Room style. Would likely be following similar playing principles, the players know him and his methods. Wouldn't need an overhaul of the youth structure to accommodate some new playing style. And it would immediately quell this Succession-style circus around the new boss. If he really is out of his depth, then go nab whomever in 2025 and some of the old guard players would be out the door as well and we'd be ready for an entirely new setup under the new manager.
Liverpool have submitted an initial request to speak with Bayer Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso as they pursue a replacement for the departing Jurgen Klopp. .... in other news, Liverpool are actively looking for a 17-year old to lead the contract negotiations.
How would that look like to potential managers. There has to be some difference of opinions on how they would like to control things.
Liverpool have now offered 'special' manager a contract until 2027 after positive talks (tbrfootball.com) it is said that Alonso prefers to take a major role in the Premier League, and sees Bayern Munich as a backwards step given the fact he currently tops the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen
Football is a weird management item though. Can't think of many organizations where a person would be extraordinarily effective as a key manager in the manner of Jose Mourihno or Luis Van Gaal, and then be a near complete waste of space doing essentially the same job. In my opinion it's quite possible that a squad like this (if it can be kept 90% together) might be a perfect platform if someone like Gerrard who has both succeeded and failed to scale the heights in. But, the problem is - you can't know this, in say, the manner that WingTips knows Thiago Alcantara....
Thinking about left field or unmentioned candidates. Not saying he should get the job, but someone who should be interviewed, in my opinion, is Luis Enrique. He’s with PSG at the moment, but as everyone knows, that’s not a real job. He’s a huge disciplinarian which would definitely go against the Klopp ethos, but I wonder if there’s something there?
I'm a little surprised that Graham Potter's name hasn't come up. His time at Chelsea is a write off in my opinion -- that club is so dysfunctional that he didn't stand a chance there. His sides play good football and he got the best out of his players at Brighton. I'm not saying he would be my first choice -- that would be Xabi -- but if Alonso proves to be unavailable perhaps Potter should get an interview. He'd be daft to go to United. Just a thought.
I think the problem he's going to have is that Brighton have continued to do well after he left for Chelsea, and so there are question marks about whether it was his coaching that made them good, or the structure at Brighton that gave him the players to perform. Given that De Zerbi came in and there was no let down - if anything they've gotten even better, and how badly things went for him with Chelsea points to the fact that he may just have been in the right place at the right time... He's probably going to need to succeed at a different club before he's given reigns at any other major club.
Liverpool might have to pay Bayer Leverkusen a world-record fee for a manager of £21m to bring Xabi Alonso back to Anfield this summer - double what they paid to sign the Spaniard as a player.
More likely, it would be some sort of agreed number. But the 21 million is a nice sensational number for the media to report.
Remember Caicedo? Lavia? Supposedly Chelsea are in the hunt for Amorim and De Zerbi to replace Pochettino.