Should Xabi Alonso take over at Real Madrid this summer?

With Carlo Ancelotti expected to depart the Spanish capital in the summer, is now the time for Alonso to make the move?

With domestic seasons across Europe drawing to their respective conclusions, attention has already turned to the summer. For Real Madrid, the focus is on what changes are needed for the club to bounce back next season. It might seem impulsive considering Madrid are only four points adrift of Barcelona at the top of La Liga, and with a Clásico to come before the season finishes, the title race is still alive. Adding to this, there’s another Clásico in the Copa del Rey final this coming weekend, meaning this season could still end in triumph for Carlo Ancelotti’s side. However, let’s be honest: winning major honours has never stopped Los Blancos from dispensing with managers before, so we won’t take anything for granted.

One of the major questions from all of this is whether Xabi Alonso would be given the time he needs to succeed at Madrid. The lure of Real Madrid is probably greater than at any other club in the world. You have the history of the club, having won a record 15 European Cups, while the Galácticos of the past, including greats such as Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo, tug on the heartstrings of players to the extent where they find it impossible to say no. To be able to call yourself one of these Galácticos means a lot to players. Whether that applies to managers is hard to discern. Alonso has experienced this as a player, and he’ll be well aware of the pitfalls that the Madrid manager faces. Trophies do not necessarily guarantee success. Ancelotti was dismissed 12 months after winning La Decima, despite finishing second in the league with 92 points. Failure is not tolerated at Madrid. Alonso will be expected to hit the ground running, especially if this season ultimately ends in disappointment for Madrid, which seems quite plausible right now.

It's worth contemplating whether Alonso truly would be the right fit for this club. Madrid’s success in the modern era has come under Ancelotti and Zidane. Two men who understand the ethos of a big club, who know how to manage big personalities, and whose greatest traits are to coax that talent through big moments. That’s not to say Ancelotti or Zidane were not tactically astute, but coaching, in the purest sense, was never among their biggest strengths. At Madrid you have a dressing room full of stars who have won everything there is to win in the game at club level, and often these same egos don’t appreciate being told there is a better way of working.

Having said that, I do believe there are players in that Madrid squad in need of coaching, and more importantly, would indeed relish the opportunity to be coached by one of the game’s brightest talents. Now may also be the best time to join the club. In the summer of 2024, with Madrid having just won their record-extending 15^th European Cup, they then sign Kylian Mbappé on a free transfer. In many ways, the only way was down for this Madrid squad this season. I think it was clear this Madrid squad is not as strong as many people had thought. With the departure of Toni Kroos catching many people by surprise, and with Luka Modrić finally starting to resemble a 39-year-old playing at the top level for the past seventeen years, more work was needed in the summer. Still, and this is purely just a hunch, I suspect there are players in that Madrid squad who would like to have a plan B up their sleeve. Over the past decade, Madrid would regularly be bailed out by the likes of Ronaldo, Gareth Bale or Karim Benzema producing a piece of magic. They were very much the ‘vibes’ team, to the point where their powers of recovery would defy all logic. The pressure is never off at Madrid, but with Barcelona’s resurgence this season, the expectation won’t be that Madrid can saunter to domestic success next season. Alonso would enter the Madrid dressing room and immediately command respect, given his history with the club, coupled with both his early career success as a manager and his tactical acumen. I’ve been trying to think of the best comparison in this regard, and one name that came to mind was Unai Emery. Emery proved himself to be a superb tactician from his early coaching days with Valencia and Sevilla, but struggled to impose his ideas at both PSG and Arsenal, where the expectations were greater. Florentino Pérez is not renowned for his patience, so Alonso won’t be afforded the same grace as he has had at Bayer Leverkusen.

Is there a case for Alonso remaining in Germany for one more season?

In short, yes, unquestionably. What Alonso has achieved in only two and a half years in Leverkusen is unprecedented in German football. Yes, they’ve fallen short in the league this season, but that’s off the back of his side winning a first-ever Bundesliga title, as well as the DFB Pokal, while remaining unbeaten throughout the entire domestic campaign. You might have thought such a coaching performance might be mildly possible at a club like Bayern Munich, given their financial might in comparison to their domestic rivals, but to achieve this at Leverkusen is otherworldly. Leverkusen were regarded as perennial losers in some people’s eyes, the ultimate nearly team. They became known as the guys who couldn’t quite get over the line. This truly manifested itself in the 2001-02 season, when Leverkusen’s 2^nd place finish in the Bundesliga, coupled with their defeats in both the DFB Pokal and Champions League finals, ensured the club would go down in folklore, but for the wrong reasons. Leverkusen’s achievements in 2023-24 put that talk to bed, not only for the magnitude of the achievements but also due to the wild nature of the season itself. There were countless occasions when Leverkusen finally looked set to give up their unbeaten record, only to conjure up moments of magic to turn defeats into victories. The spirit of this team to rise from the dead was all part of their story, and I think we have overlooked just how colossal they were last season. Thomas Muller has previously spoken about how difficult this Leverkusen team was to come up against, how they would never score the same goal, and how that dynamism in their overall play made them such a difficult proposition.

At a glance, the assumption is that Leverkusen have underachieved this season, but in any regular season this would be regarded as an almighty success. When Alonso took charge in October 2022, this was a team languishing in the relegation zone, but he quickly turned their season around to finish 6^th and qualify for the Europa League. Leverkusen were not regularly finishing in the Champions League places, let alone competing for league titles. So, to consider this season as a disappointment does require some perspective. Alonso’s stock is not going to fall if he spends another season at Leverkusen. Some of the criticism aimed at Alonso when he reportedly turned down the Madrid job last summer was put down to him losing his nerve and not having the courage to take on a higher-profile job. I really think you could make a case for the opposite, with Alonso showing immense bravery to turn down the highest profile job of all, essentially backing himself to land another offer in the future. He has carefully mapped out his coaching career so far. He turned down Borussia Mönchengladbach while in charge of Real Sociedad B. He wanted to bide his time and build himself up before moving into a top-level coaching role. He resisted the overtures from Liverpool to replace Jürgen Klopp last summer, potentially aware of a no-win situation, given Klopp's success at Anfield.

On the flip side, is there an argument that Alonso has reached his ceiling with Leverkusen? If Leverkusen lose players such as Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong, that would leave huge holes in the squad that would need filling. As a man with no knowledge of the situation, I get the impression Wirtz might be happy to remain at Leverkusen for one more season. He’s still only 21 years old. He was born in Pulheim, on the other side of the Rhine to the BayArena, so he’s likely more than comfortable in his surroundings. He has a bond with Leverkusen, having joined the club from FC Köln in 2020, and he probably never thought this level of success was possible. There’s no reason to seek a transfer right now, unless Madrid come knocking, which I’m not ruling out.

Could one more season be one season too many at Leverkusen for Alonso? Some might argue that was the case last summer. But is there a shelf life to this level of intensity? We’ve seen examples of this in the past with Pep Guardiola and Klopp, although they were very different cases. Has this Leverkusen team become predictable? We lauded this team for their bouncebackability, but teams now know when the inevitable onslaught is going to come in matches, and they’re more prepared for it. Manchester United built their reputation on Fergie Time. That mental exhaustion took its toll on opposition players, and they would wilt under pressure. But it’s rare. For most teams, that level of intensity, week after week, season after season, is not possible. There may be a lot more sense in Alonso leaving the club because you can make a reasonable argument about what else there is to achieve in Germany. What they have achieved will never be topped, unless we see something freakish from St Pauli next season. I’m putting that one down as unlikely.

If Alonso does decide to leave, he’ll do so with Leverkusen’s blessing, but maybe one more season would be the best preparation for the most scrutinised job in world football.