Bild:Alonso willing to coach Liverpool next season but needs to control transfer

According to Bild, due to Liverpool's poor performance this season, Slot will leave at the latest this summer, and the club has locked in an ideal successor - Xabi Alonso. 

The legendary midfielder is ready to take over the team, but only if he can get enough say in the squad planning.

The report said that the tenth league loss of the season is likely to determine Slot's fate. After losing 1-2 to Brighton away, perhaps it was only because the direct competitors for the Champions League seats were also in poor condition that the 47-year-old Liverpool coach was spared immediate dismissal.

At the latest this summer, this decision will be implemented. And the ideal successor has been identified: Xabi Alonso. However, the champion creator of Bayer Leverkusen does not want to take over in the middle of the season.

Liverpool is facing a profound change. Superstar Salah will also leave the English club at the end of the season - despite his contract until 2027. Salah has played for Liverpool since 2017 and has scored 255 goals in 435 games so far. Even if Salah leaves, it is still a real opportunity to start over for Liverpool and Alonso.

Liverpool maintains contact with Alonso

From a competitive point of view, the situation this season is not ideal. Liverpool have only taken 4 points in the past four league games and are currently ranked fifth - in the Premier League, this position is enough to ensure Champions League qualification. But to advance to the Champions League, the competition is like a tortoise race: Aston Villa is still 5 points ahead of the defending champion and ranks fourth, although they have only taken 3 points in the past four games; Chelsea, ranked sixth (1 point behind Liverpool), has also only won 3 points in the past four games.

Slot has entered the defense mode. He tried to depreciate the 500 million euro investment last summer (including the introduction of Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen) on the grounds that Liverpool also earned more than 300 million euros by selling players (including Luis Diaz's transfer to Bayern). However, the players left not because they wanted to leave after winning the championship in 2025, but because Liverpool needed to streamline their squad after a shopping spree. Slot failed to successfully integrate the many stars into a fighting team.

Therefore, Alonso is expected to take over this summer. Michael Edwards wanted to sign him as early as the spring of 2024, but Alonso refused at the time - he was leading Bayer Leverkusen towards the club's first Bundesliga title in history, and eventually won the title undefeated, creating history.

Edwards has never interrupted contact, even during the successful season in which Slot led the team in the 2024-25 season. Alonso's advisor Iñaki Ibáñez recently confirmed that there were indeed specific inquiries about Alonso. Alonso has won 18 titles in his playing career, including the Champions League with Liverpool, and the World Cup and European Cup with Spain.

Liverpool is one of the clubs with the best chance among many clubs interested in Alonso. Alonso is ready to meet the challenges of Liverpool. If Liverpool offers him a concrete offer, he will agree - provided that his conditions are accepted in advance. This mainly involves his influence on squad planning. A year ago, he agreed to Real Madrid's invitation, although his signing wishes (a real center, an organizing midfielder) were put on hold before signing. He will not let this happen a second time.

Similarly, participating in the Club World Cup with Real Madrid in the summer (although he himself does not fully agree with this event) was also a lesson for him. After losing 0-4 to Paris Saint-Germain in the new FIFA event, he was already under pressure before the start of the 2025-26 season preparations. Therefore, taking over Liverpool in the final sprint stage of the season is not an option for Alonso.

He was fired by Real Madrid in mid-January. Since then, Liverpool has been stepping up its efforts to win him over. Alonso's return to Anfield is seen as the best opportunity to truly get this top team up and running. At Bayer Leverkusen, he cultivated Wirtz from a super genius into a world-class player. The latter has gradually improved after experiencing a difficult start in Liverpool and has become the core source of creativity for Liverpool. Alonso is likely to give him, and thus Liverpool, a further boost.

Alonso's strength lies in injecting a clear tactical idea into the team, strengthening the team's mentality, and guiding and improving the stars day after day. In Liverpool, he can play a purely coaching role more than in Real Madrid - in Real Madrid, the coach is more like a "manager" who manages the vanity of the stars.