Alonso to Liverpool, Xavi to Chelsea: Predicting the next jobs of the 10 best available managers | OneFootball

Xabi Alonso feels inevitable unless Liverpool’s board decide to be contrary, while Thomas Frank and Ange Postecoglou are predicted to be back in the Premier League.

As the end of the season approaches, thoughts turn to managerial changes (do they ever veer away from that topic?) and who’ll be bossing who next season.

We’ve kept a running list of the 10 best available managers and now it’s time to predict where those coaches will turn up next…

10) Thomas Frank – Crystal Palace

Frank was a failure at Spurs but, lads, it’s Tottenham. Not many get out of there alive.

The question with Frank, as is par for the course whenever you pluck a manager from a club as well run as Brentford, is whether his success was truly his or the group’s. Regardless of the mitigation around his Spurs spell, the Dane now has it all to prove again.

Frank is among the favourites for Palace along with Robbie Keane. The Irishman is also favourite for Celtic and Palace might be wise to opt for a manager proven in the Premier League, and one comfortable with collaboration after Oliver Glasner’s recent hissy fits.

9) Edin Terzic – Athletic Bilbao

Terzic is ready for a new job – actually, he was ready back in September. But the 42-year-old is being choosy about his next destination.

It is to his credit that he can afford to be picky and a consequence of a reign at Borussia Dortmund that saw Terzic come tantalisingly close to becoming a Bundesliga and Champions League-winning coach. Of course, he won neither.

He’s been out of the game for two years, and though he insists he has spent much of that time honing his coaching craft, there is only so long a sabbatical can last before people forget.

He’s turned down clubs such as Everton and Monaco while waiting for the right call, which may have already come from Athletic Club. Ernesto Valverde is stepping down and Terzic is said to have discussed taking over.

8) Ruben Amorim – Benfica

Jose Mourinho will point to his unbeaten record in the league as a sign of success but that table also has Benfica in third, seven points behind Porto and knocked out of the cups.

Mourinho’s deal, signed when he returned to the club in September 2025, includes the option for both him and Benfica to walk away from the other within 10 days of the end of the season.

So, Amorim awaits. A return to familiar surroundings makes sense after his chastening experience at Manchester United. He did not help himself with his weird devotion to a single system that got the best out of almost nobody at Old Trafford but, back home, they remember him for his success with Sporting as much as his struggles with United.

7) Ange Postecoglou – Bournemouth

The Celtic vacancy this summer looks convenient but Brendan Rodgers has probably put the Bhoys off reunions. And Robbie Keane looks well placed for the Parkhead position.

Postecoglou is currently working as a UEFA technical advisor but he’s said that he has unfinished business in the UK, especially in the Premier League. He’s also admitted that, given his methods, he would want to go into a club in time for the start of pre-season, which narrows his immediate options.

We always felt he could suit Leeds United, and he still might given the board at Elland Road have never been entirely sold on Daniel Farke. If Leeds limp to the end of the season, avoiding the drop by a narrower margin than it seemed they might, then perhaps Red Bull take that as an excuse to fire Farke.

Bournemouth, though, looks a decent bet for Postecoglou. The Cherries are set to be on the hunt for a new manager with Andoni Iraola out of contract and linked with bigger jobs. With a malleable group and a steady environment, it could be the place to repair Ange-ball’s reputation.

6) Sean Dyche – Burnley

Relegation is the least Spurs deserve for refusing to give the world what it really needs in these troubled times: Dyche in the Big Six.

Fairly or not, Dyche has been pinned as a firefighter but here we are in April with him stood looking for somewhere to aim his massive hose. His reputation is sure to put off Premier League sporting directors, shadow-dwelling shysters that many of them are, so Dyche might be waiting a while if it’s a top-tier gig he’s after.

Which probably suits him with a summer’s worth of festivals coming up. Unless Burnley bin Scott Parker and Dyche feels the romantic pull of a reunion with the club he took from the Championship to Europe.

5) Enzo Maresca – Manchester City

Being sacked by Chelsea has worked out very well for Maresca. He did a creditable job without pulling up trees – the FIFA Club World Cup gives his CV a very polished look – but Stamford Bridge is a circus and his reputation seems to be improving with each day that passes since he left at New Year.

So Maresca is almost certain to fall upwards and he seems to have supporters at Manchester City. Much depends on Pep Guardiola’s whims.

If Guardiola goes this summer – we won’t discover his thinking until the season’s end, apparently – then Maresca has manoeuvred into a very favourable position. The Italian is one of three frontrunners with Xabi Alonso and Vincent Kompany. More on Alonso below, and Kompany looks snug at Bayern Munich. Which leaves Maresca a clear path to return to the Etihad.

4) Zinedine Zidane – France

Surely the only job to tempt Zizou back into management.

We would love to have seen Zidane take control at another club to discover if he is really a great coach or just a great Real Madrid coach. Clearly, though, he doesn’t need this sh*t. Especially in the modern era. And we absolutely respect that.

So international management is a decent compromise. It’s a part-time gig, really. Certainly compared to bossing at the Bernabeu. He’s been waiting for Didier Deschamps to vacate the France post and it seems we are just the World Cup away from it all falling into place.

3) Sir Gareth Southgate – consultancy

There’s a very good chance Southgate never manages again. That’s probably more likely than not right now.

Come the summer, it will be two years since he resigned as England boss and he seems very content with his lot. As Southgate has said himself, he would only come back to the Premier League for a club ready to win trophies, and if he doesn’t eventually wind up at Manchester United, it’s hard to see where else would be a good fit.

He has also bemoaned the erosion of the manager’s authority in the modern game, with most clubs following the same model.

All that said, while Southgate is often at pains to present himself as the anti-PFM, the football is still in him somewhere, and there’s only so much corporate bullsh*t anyone can handle when they don’t have to. We could see a sporting director role in his future, but his very next gig? More speeches, podcasts and suits.

2) Xavi – Chelsea

We keep hearing that Xavi is looking for a Premier League job, but we fear the one he wants doesn’t exist.

The last sentence of that quote from a year ago makes us ponder whether he has any idea what he would be letting himself in for.

But when you’ve succeeded at Barcelona, even amid all the financial chaos, you can afford to be more discerning.

Xavi might have looked good for Manchester United but Michael Carrick’s success seems to have backed the Red Devils into a position they really did not believe they would be in. Decide for yourself if that says more about the board or Amorim.

If Xavi really hasn’t been paying that much attention, perhaps the many directors of football and whatever else at Chelsea can sell him on ‘making a project’ there. Someone needs to get a grip of the club.

1) Xabi Alonso – Liverpool

C’mon, Reds. He’s right there…

In many ways, you have to feel for Arne Slot, who’s managed most of the season with Alonso’s shadow looming over him. That’s not to excuse Slot’s role in Liverpool’s wretched title defence, which is reason in itself to make a change this summer.

The sentiment around Anfield favours Alonso’s return over persisting with Slot, even if the hierarchy seem to want to be seen to be resisting it. That could be to offer the illusion of unity as Liverpool seek a Champions League place, or they really do believe Slot will turn it around in the post-Salah era. Perhaps there really is some logic in that, but sometimes you just have to give the people what they want.