‘Probably impossible’

Liverpool’s chances of appointing Xabi Alonso as Jurgen Klopp’s successor look slim after the honorary president of their rivals for his signature, Bayern Munich, admitted a deal was “probably impossible.”

The Bayer Leverkusen manager has been hotly tipped as the leading candidate to succeed Klopp when he steps down from his role at Anfield at the end of the 2023-24 season.

Alonso has strong links to the Merseyside club, having spent five years there as a player, but British media reports on Thursday said that The Reds are looking at alternative candidates as they do not believe he will be available this summer.

The Spaniard is enjoying a breakthrough season in his fledgling managerial career, leading Leverkusen 10 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga table and into the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals.

Bayern Munich, whose head coach Thomas Tuchel is also departing at the end of the season, were also among Alonso’s admirers.

But the German champions’ honorary president Uli Hoeness believes the 42-year-old will be going nowhere in the off-season.

“We’ll have to see if we can do it this year,” he said, as reported by the BBC. “It will be difficult, if not probably impossible.”

“[Alonso] is more inclined to stay at Bayer Leverkusen in view of their current successes, because he would not want to leave them behind,” Hoeness added.

“Let’s say if he had two or three more years of success, it would probably be easier to bring him out of there.”

With eight games remaining of the Bundesliga season, Leverkusen are in a strong position to win their first league title.

The club finished as runners-up five times between 1997 and 2011 but never top of the pile, a run that Alonso looks set to end in only his second season in senior management.

With the Leverkusen boss likely out of the running, The Telegraph reports that Sporting CP manager Ruben Amorim and Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi are the leading contenders for the Liverpool job.

Klopp made the shock announcement in January that he would step down at the end of the season after nine years in charge in which he has won the UEFA Champions League and the Premier League.

Liverpool won the League Cup last month and are still in contention to win two more trophies before the end of the campaign.

The Reds sit second in the league standings, behind leaders Arsenal on goal difference, while they face Atalanta in the Europa League quarter-finals next month.

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