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Liverpool’s season has been spluttering to a conclusion for some time now.
While the club look set to seal a Champions League spot come the end of the campaign, it has been undoubtably been a disappointing title defence for Arne Slot’s side.
During Saturday’s 1-1 draw with an out-of-sorts Chelsea side, the Anfield crowd made their discontent clear, with boos greeting Slot’s decision to substitute teenage winger Rio Ngumoha and then again at full-time.
Liverpool sound out Real Madrid on Xabi Alonso
Speculation is therefore again mounting about the Dutchman’s future in the dugout.
Slot arrived on Merseyside from Feyenoord to replace Jurgen Klopp in the summer of 2024 and would go on to win the Premier League title, with the Reds finishing ten points ahead of Arsenal.
This season’s disappointing campaign has come on the back of a summer transfer window in which the club spent more than £400million on reinforcements, which again appears to undermine Slot’s position.
It is therefore no surprise that rumours of managerial change continue to circulate, not least because former Reds hero Xabi Alonso is currently available.
The Spaniard, who turned out more than 200 times during a five-year spell for the club began his managerial career in spectacular fashion when he led Bayer Leverkusen to their first-ever Bundesliga title in 2024, with his side going undefeated in the process.
But a disappointing six-month spell with Real Madrid that ended in January has dented his managerial stock. It is clearly with that in mind that Liverpool have reportedly sounded out the Spanish side to see what went wrong for the 44-year-old as the club weighs up their options this summer.
That’s according to Spanish outlet AS, who say that Liverpool’s enquiry was made in order to understand what caused the reported dressing room split at the Bernabeu, during which time players such as Vinicius Jnior and Fede Valverde openly criticised Alonso’s methods.
Reports at the time claimed that some players even pretended to sleep during tactical sessions and spoke to each other over the coach, with certain players in the squad believing he did not match up to his predecessor, Carlo Ancelotti.
These claims have clearly been enough to give Liverpool pause for thought when it comes to hiring Alonso, despite the former Reds favourite being perhaps Europe’s most sought-after young coach 12 months ago.
But due diligence is never a bad idea, and if Liverpool are able to establish that Alonso’s struggles in Madrid were due to an ego-fuelled dressing room resistant to change, he may well again find himself as the frontrunner for the Anfield job.
