Manchester City watching top-of-the-league boss as Liverpool eye future Anfield return

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Liverpool may face competition for Bayer Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso with Manchester City now believed to be interested.

Manchester City are admirers of Bayer Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso as they consider life after Pep Guardiola.

That is according to The Sunday Mirror (03/12, p64) as they claim that Alonso is a man in demand.

Leverkusen took a real gamble last year as they axed Gerardo Seoane and gave Alonso his first senior managerial job.

The Spaniard now has Leverkusen top of the Bundesliga table with 11 wins and two draws in 13 games.

Alonso is working wonders at the age of just 42 and is now attracting interest from some of Europe’s top clubs.

Manchester City join Liverpool in admiring Xabi Alonso

The Sunday Mirror now report that Real Madrid want to bring Alonso back to the club next summer.

Alonso is seen as the ‘ideal candidate’ to replace Carlo Ancelotti having previously coached Real’s youth setup.

Alonso also played nearly 250 games for Real as a player and a return to the Santiago Bernabeu could appeal.

The report adds that both Liverpool and Manchester City like Alonso too, meaning there is a real battle on for his services.

We aren’t expecting to see Jurgen Klopp leave Liverpool any time soon, even with the Germany job potentially becoming available again next summer.

Liverpool are still tracking Alonso though, eyeing him as a potential successor to Klopp whenever the time comes for him to move on.

Alonso was a Liverpool favourite as a player and the Anfield faithful would surely welcome him back to Merseyside one day.

Then there is City, who have the greatest manager of his generation in Pep Guardiola.

The Spaniard seems settled at the Etihad Stadium but City will be carefully analysing potential successors for whenever Guardiola moves on.

Alonso played under Guardiola at Bayern Munich and allegedly rejected the chance to join Guardiola’s coaching staff in 2020.

Guardiola may well have a say in his successor whenever the time comes and we would imagine that Alonso will be prominent in his thinking.

Liverpool and City are thinking for the long-term though, whereas Real may be ready to move at the end of the season in order to pip those other interested clubs.