Alonso Becomes Chelsea Manager, Is It A Blow To Liverpool? | OneFootball

This has been an unadulterated mess of a season, with countless different things combining in order to ensure that Liverpool fans are about as miserable as it’s possible for them to be from a purely footballing point of view.

The hope of those that have decided that Arnie Slot is a ‘fraud’ and a ‘disgrace’ was that the presence of Xabi Alonso as a manager without a club might well mean that the Spaniard would be snapped up by Fenway Sports Group as the next person to be in line to manager the Reds. Now, Alonso has been confirmed as the next Chelsea manager, leaving Liverpool without an obvious candidate to turn to.

Why Alonso Might Not Have Been the Right Fit

Although a large section of Liverpool fans have long cast admiring glances Alonso’s way, the word out of the club has long been that they don’t see the former midfielder as a viable option to take over at Anfield. Whilst he seemed like the ideal candidate on paper, in reality it has been a reasoning that I can understand.

Although he had an exceptional season with Bayer Leverkusen when they went unbeaten on their way to the Bundesliga title, the following season was a bit of a train wreck in a not dissimilar way to what we’re experiencing under Slot now.

When there were no expectations on Alonso, he succeeded better than anyone could have imagined. As soon as the expectations were there, however, he struggled to live up to the previous promise. Then there is the style of play, which is not dissimilar to the one that a lot of Liverpool supporters have been critical of under Slot. If the owners are in agreement with Mo Salah’s take that we need to see a ‘return to heavy metal football’, they will have looked at what Alonso does and decided that it wasn’t for us anyway.

What Might Happen Next

I think it’s fair to say that this won’t be the last time that I write a piece about the managerial position at Liverpool this summer. Personally, I think that Arne Slot is deserving of a lot more respect that he’s been receiving from some quarters, including the players that he helped guide through the devastating loss of their friend and teammate during the summer. It is difficult to argue against the idea that he’s lost the supporter base at this point, however, and that a change might be best for all concerned.

If that’s the decision that Richard Hughes, Michael Edwards and the FSG hierarchy end up making then they will almost certainly turn to a much more hipster choice than many people are expecting. After all, no one saw Arne Slot coming before it was confirmed and he’d won a Premier League title before most people knew much about him. Names like Andoni Iraola, Sebastian Hoeneß and Julian Nagelsmann will be on the list, whilst most people will be hoping that Luis Enrique decides to leave Paris Saint-Germain this summer and arrive at Anfield.