Alonso ‘requests’ at Liverpool ranked from impossible Olise to nailed-on Salah | OneFootball

Liverpool fans are growing increasingly weary of Arne Slot’s football and his calm demeanour when more evident frustration is called for, and Xabi Alonso’s availability has ramped up the pressure on the Dutchman’s shoulders.

Failure at Real Madrid has not dimmed the belief on Merseyside that their former midfielder would be the ideal manager to take them forward and head a rebuild that’s not going all that well at Anfield.

There’s plenty to be done, and a couple of reports have already detailed discussions between Alonso and the Liverpool bosses in not-so-‘secret’ meetings ahead of Slot’s sacking and his appointment.

It’s four players in, five players out for Alonso if said reports are to be believed and we’ve ranked the potential moves from most unlikely to nailed on.

9) Michael Olise in

It speaks to the arrogance of Premier League stakeholders that this could even be considered a possibility. We don’t mean Liverpool as we doubt it’s them pushing this nonsense line, but the transfer gurus and the fans who lap this rubbish up.

A world-class footballer hasn’t moved to the Premier League from Bayern at the top of their game since Michael Ballack’s switch to Chelsea on a free transfer in 2006, and he was 29.

Olise is a 24-year-old who’s got 33 goals and 45 assists in 85 appearances for Bayern. He’s currently the seventh most valuable footballer on the planet and we suspect anyone wanting to take him off Bayern’s hands is going to have to pay a helluva lot more than £112m, as he’s arguably the best footballer on the planet right now.

But what if Liverpool really, really want him to replace Mohamed Salah? It’s still not gonna happen, guys. It will be Real Madrid or nowhere for Olise.

8) Ryan Gravenberch out

The most surprising name on the very real list of crossed-out names Alonso handed to Richard Hughes under the cover of darkness according to a report earlier this week, because albeit not at the outstanding level of last season, when everyone was hailing him and Slot over his move to the base of midfield, Gravenberch has still been pretty good this term, hasn’t he?

7) Bradley Barcola in

The 23-year-old’s got a bit of stick this season as his finishing has been found wanting on a few occasions, and that along with Paris Saint-Germain signing wonderkid left-winger Dro Fernandez from Barcelona has led to suggestions that PSG would be willing to listen to offers for Barcola in the summer.

Arsenal have been linked in a bid to find a solution to their troublesome left side, and having presumably spent most of the season cursing their decision to sell Luis Diaz to Bayern without sourcing a replacement, Liverpool could easily put themselves in the mix.

6) Micky van de Ven in

Tottenham slapping a £100m price tag on Van de Ven may well have the unintended consequence of both the centre-back and potential suitors believing there’s simply no way a £100m footballer should be playing for Spurs and look to open up an escape route for him in the summer.

Liverpool need at least two new centre-backs, and may end up signing three if – as has been widely suggested – Van de Ven has been earmarked as the long-term successor to Virgil van Dijk.

5) Cody Gakpo out

Maybe the chief Liverpool scapegoat as things stand, which he has every right to feel aggrieved about considering the slumps of his more venerable teammates this term, but Gakpo’s cut inside, shoot and have shot blocked schtick is admittedly wearing a little thin.

It’s an area of the pitch that Alonso will quite reasonably feel there’s marked room for improvement and Hughes will believe – again reasonably – that he can get a decent wedge of cash for offloading Gakpo.

4) Alexis Mac Allister out

A hard one to call as he’s a) been linked with an exit for some time, and b) has arguably experienced more of a downturn this season than any other Liverpool player, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk included, but he’s also the sort of midfielder Alonso would cherish – very like him in a lot of ways – and was more heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid while Alonso was at the Bernabeu.

3) Adam Wharton in

If Wharton is to leave Palace, and he will because he’s brilliant and Palace are the selling-ist selling club in the history of time, we can only really see him moving to Manchester City, Manchester United or Liverpool.

City supposedly want Elliot Anderson instead, so it looks set to be a bit of a toss-up between the Reds and the Red Devils. The offer of Champions League football could incredibly give United the upper hand, placed as they are currently above Liverpool in the Premier League table, but reports suggest the 21-year-old has ‘already given his availability to Liverpool’.

2) Ibrahima Konate out

Liverpool have apparently put a new contract on the table, presumably quite worried at having to spend a lot of money to fix their defence having made one of the biggest transfer blunders in their recent history by missing out on Marc Guehi and accepting that Konate isn’t all bad.

He has been quite bad though and has made plain his desire to leave having turned down several contract offers already. Time to part ways.

Terrible before his strop and maybe even worse after it, there should be no world in which Liverpool don’t accept what still looks set to be a whopping – if not quite so whopping as the £150m on the table a year or so ago – offer from Saudi Arabia for Salah’s services.