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KARREN BRADY
Xabi Alonso is the ideal fit to fill Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool shoes – how successful he’ll be is impossible to predict
Klopp will step down at the end of the season
FINDING a manager is a doddle. Just how successful he will be is impossible to predict.
All signs point to Xabi Alonso moving into Jurgen Klopp’s spot at Anfield and, further, that he will be an ideal fit to fill them with a sockfull of similar achievements to the German.
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A gentle warning here that it’s not always the case that past achievements guarantee future ones.
At West Ham, we believed we had pulled off a coup with the appointment of Manuel Pellegrini, whose record included a period with Real Madrid and winning the Prem with Manchester City.
It failed to work, the partnership lasted 18 months.
Sometimes it’s the fit, the understanding and the trust between the manager, the players, the supporters and the board that guarantee success or failure.
As Kevin Kegan famously said about his time at Newcastle, his relationship with the board was based on trust and understanding . . . they didn’t understand him and he didn’t trust them!
In 2020, Klopp led Liverpool to their first title in 30 years and with City monopolising it ever since, Anfield’s crown prince will have quite a task.
Alonso has shown his potential at Bayer Leverkusen, especially with Saturday’s 3-0 pulverisation of Bayern Munich. That result extended Leverkusen’s lead at the top to five points and make Bayern’s chance of an 11th consecutive title look rather sick.
Pale at the best of times, Thomas Tuchel was an even whiter shade at the way he had been tactically out-thought by a manager who has only been in the job two years.
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At Anfield, there might well have been a collective licking of lips.
The Red half of Merseyside is bereft at losing Klopp, whose decision to take a break after this season, which I admire, had not been predicted.
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Whatever Alonso or another appointment brings, I doubt his personality will ever match the impact of Klopp’s on Merseyside or this country.
He is the German we all like. Sincere, passionate, honest and vastly knowledgeable, he is leaving so much behind he doesn’t need a statue.
But while his successor is following the man who won Liverpool’s 20th top-flight title, the Kop board will surely regard Alonso as The One. He admits to Liverpool being his favourite among his many former clubs.
Shortly before he left for Real Madrid, in 2009, he said: “I understand what Liverpool means to so many people.
“It is such a special club and I just didn’t want to leave.
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“The fans couldn’t have done more to show me how they felt . . . If I went out for lunch or a coffee, there was always someone who would say, ‘We’d love you to stay’.”
Alongside Steve Gerrard as the defensive midfielder in Rafa Benitez’s excellent side, he was a key player in arguably the greatest comeback in Champions League history — 2005’s the Miracle of Istanbul.
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Alonso considered it the best moment in his career, so how could he resist returning as The Gaffer.
And once there, how he would fancy a few meetings with the great Pep Guardiola and, probably his greatest pal in football, Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta, a boyhood friend with designs to overtake Pep and Klopp for the title this season.