As a very famous Internet poet would say, “there is news that makes you smile”. Xabi Alonso announced this Friday that he would remain on the Bayer Leverkusen bench next season. A carefully considered decision during the international break, as the Basque revealed in a match eve conference at Hoffenheim: “Last week, I had a good meeting with Simon (Rolfes, the sporting director), Fernando (Carlo , the president) and I gave them my decision to continue being the coach of Bayer Leverkusen. »
Why rejoice at such news when the Bundesliga, with all due respect to the French team’s lobby, does not really interest us that much? No doubt because the decision of dared to challenge their authority. Bayern based its sporting success on this pattern, of which the interest in the Leverkusen coach was the predictable expression, once the departure of Thomas Tuchel was confirmed.
What if Eric Roy did the same in Brest?
The choice of Liverpool would have been the least bad. Jürgen Klopp is leaving and is preparing to leave behind a heavy legacy to carry. Xabi Alonso, as a historic former player – scorer in the victorious battle for Istanbul in the C1 final in 2005 – had all the legitimacy to succeed him. The story would have been beautiful. But the status and resources of the Reds give them much more room to maneuver to find a successor to Klopp than the German club if it were to lose Alonso at the end of the season.
Let’s give Leverkusen supporters the right to go to the end of their cycle, as Klopp was able to do with Dortmund or, long before him, José Mourinho in Porto and, who knows, as Eric Roy could do in Brest. These phenomena are rare and the last capable of saving us from the series of uninterrupted victories of the five, six biggest budgets in European football. Let’s take advantage of it.
Klopp understands Xabi Alonso choice
Let’s not be naive though: this announcement reflects nothing other than the postponement of the deadline. The Spaniard will not make his life under the banner of the pharmaceutical giant. He is probably giving himself a year off to see how far he can go in the Champions League next year. Jürgen Klopp’s analysis agrees: “He’s doing an incredible job there. Leverkusen have a good team and they will probably keep the squad. I understand why he wants to do that. »
Xabi Alonso also intends to strengthen himself at the highest level before taking on a role with greater responsibility. “At the moment I think this is the right place for me to continue developing as a coach,” Alonso said. I’m still a young coach and I feel like this is the right place. My work here is not yet finished. » Looking forward to the sequel.