In football....
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1773732201261064192/vid/avc1/720x1280/6TgdgqQK282fIuAu.mp4?tag=14
Stock at its highest, is Xabi Alonso making a mistake by staying at Leverkusen a further season?
No - ⭐️
Yes - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
(For avoidance of doubt this is not me advocating take over at Chelsea next season).
My view - Very much a case of selling himself short.
Leverkusen will win the league UNBEATEN for the first time in their 120-year history! (Destroying Bayern' consecutive title record in the process).
Straightforward cup final against a second or third division side (which will only be their second 🏆 final win in 31 years) and maybe come out victorious in Europa + developed players & team into a winning machine. Eradicated the "Bayer Neverkusen" tag. Bayer Neverlusen.
Realistically, what else is there to achieve from a personal managerial perspective?
Better off just leaving on a high as their most successful coach in yonks after double / treble is won, legacy. Downhill from there next season.
Any possible failures with Alonso deciding to stay at Leverkusen, instead of leaving is more risky. Opportunities to manage elite clubs don't come around very often. [There will be a lot of eyes on the young Stuttgart coach and ex Bayern youth coach Sebastian Hoeneß as well, limited resources working wonders with lowest average age squad only four points behind Bayern with a game in hand. For context...Took over solidly relegation fodder club tail-end of last season to Gunning for runner-up spot this season]
Moreover...Bayern will most definitely strengthen their squad and improve accordingly, whilst Leverkusen likely lose a few key players like Frimpong, Wirtz, Boniface etc. Raided.
Expectations will be considerably higher than they should be, for a club that have no right / business challenging in CL + for the title with Bayern and Dortmund (Gladbach, Leipzig).
Stock rises as fast as it sharply plummets
posted on 29/3/24
Failure could serve to overshadow, and outweigh a quite phonenomenal managerial full debut season.
posted on 30/3/24
Don't blame him to be honest. Learning his trade and at a good club. Odds are he wins feck all with Liverpool while City are dominant.
posted on 30/3/24
pretty much sums up the guy!! very smart and smart move! Liverpool are going into wilderness for the next two years best leave then to it 🤣🤣🤣
posted on 30/3/24
Amusing that Liverpool are already being dealt damaging doses of reality before Klopp’s even left.
They’re simply not a big draw, look at them in the Prem era aside from Klopp and they’re bang average. A title challenge every 6-7 years or so.
For Alonso to snub them like this is just a sign of what’s to come. Apparently now they’re being linked with some Portuguese guy that we turned down after Ole. Hilarious.
posted on 30/3/24
comment by He who Dares, waits for Trophies (U15748)
posted 1 hour, 34 minutes ago
pretty much sums up the guy!! very smart and smart move! Liverpool are going into wilderness for the next two years best leave then to it 🤣🤣🤣
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Will still finish comfortably ahead of Spurs, as always.
posted on 30/3/24
comment by Chelseamf™®© (U1677)
posted 18 hours, 44 minutes ago
Failure could serve to overshadow, and outweigh a quite phonenomenal managerial full debut season.
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I don't think so in this case. This is the best time to be a manager, where he is right now, as long as he keeps it steady the offers will come. Most recent example to avoid I can think of is Potter - he ruined this moment, that only happens once for a manager, by jumping into bed with the first big club that seriously pursued him. If he'd have held his nerve he'd have been in line for Liverpool, United, Spurs (before Ange), and us by now.
What will hurt him is if he takes the plunge & fails quickly! He'll get tags like "one season wonder", "good in Germany, not suited to x league", "can't manage ego's", etc...
posted on 30/3/24
I'd argue this counts double for Alonso (compared to Amorim say) because people have pre-designated expectations for him being how good of a player he was. People will be extra prepared to both propel him up & tear him down.
Best example of this, possibly in recent history is Mr "young Mourinho" Andre Villas-Boas.
posted on 31/3/24
Incomparable to AVB or Potter.
There's enough evidence to support that Alonso is comfortably a better coach manager than both and will fare better at an elite club immediately.
AVB was managing a title winning squad, one of the most decorated club in Portugal and feat had been done before. Stable platform already there, success was inevitable.
(Huge chasm in difference between the squads AVB coached at Porto & Alonso at Leverkusen to achieve their respective successes domestically against the competition).
The magic and history Alonso has created in a short space of time at perennial underachievers Leverkusen who were 17th place and at a low ebb when he took over parallels with Leicester type anomaly and outlier success, but on a much grander magnitude...establishing, implementing and adapting a style whilst shattering monopoly of the overwhelmingly talented and experienced Bayern squad against all odds in the process. Crushing records.
Unprecedented, once in a blue moon moment (Counts for more than AVB' achievements).
How does one even begin to match or measure the next season against this season heroics?
Replicating the achievements next season is nigh-impossible.
Ranieri is the appropriate comparison, couldn't deliver again after the heightened weight of expectations + key players namely Kante left...ultimately led to his sacking (not saying for a second sacking will transpire in the case of Alonso by any means, but you get my point).
Reverting to a more-or-less median standard at Leverkusen is what I see happening next season as maintaining these current levels is unsustainable, especially with top clubs pursuing his key players (selling club) and rivals making a great effort to stop them...will feel like a damp squib in comparison to this season heroics and could very quickly have reputation damaging ramifications.
Hence should move on at the earliest convience.
Ranieri made the error of staying on...should have retired there and then, rather than continuing with a squad that exerted everything into that one season with most of players at the end of their shelf-life, spent, playing above their normal level / limits. His legacy was somewhat tarnished by how sour the season after that title winning season turned out to be (players simply reverted to type).
To my mind...Only way the decision to remain can be justified is if there's a secret pre-agreement in place already to replace Ancelloti in 2025.
Conversely if that's not the case...who's to say Klopp wont put himself in position for the job?
posted on 31/3/24
Monumental false equivalence comparing this to Leicester. This is like if a manager won Spurs the league or England the World Cup (in dominant fashion). It's a tremendous achievement no doubt about it, but the reason both suggestions of this are so banter worthy is because on history & quality (most of the time) these football institutions are chronic underachievers. Leverkusen are this team in Germany, they might not have won the Bundesliga but that's a surprise, it was inevitable at some point, nobody would've expected the same of Leicester.
I think you're underestimating how much football at the elite club level craves anything that's seen as "fresh", and how it's developed a boxing like ruthlessness of a couple of KO's and you're seen as damaged goods. Managers who excel at youth team levels are getting mid-table level jobs & those managers are getting top jobs over more proven, experienced candidates for those jobs because of differences in largely fictitious things like philosophy.
As long as Leverkusen keep playing well & are competitive around the top 4-5 (which is Leverkusen's expected mean), Alonso will be fine. If he waits like 5 to 10 years yeah OK, the buzz will fade, but for a few years at least he'll be hot property. And I don't blame any manager for enjoying this moment in their career which like I said only happens once! That window of time where they're unblemished & their next job will almost certainly put an end to that.