Image Credits: Imago Images
Xabi Alonso has never truly left the conversation at Liverpool, even though his playing days at Anfield ended back in 2009.
The Spanish midfielder is the kind of figure whose presence lingers long after departure, and right now, in April 2026, his name is circulating at Anfield with fresh urgency as Arne Slot faces mounting pressure following Liverpool’s Champions League exit and a period of domestic inconsistency.
As a player at Real Madrid, where he spent five years between 2009 and 2014, Alonso was the tactical brain that made everything work.
Across 236 appearances for the club, he scored six goals and contributed 31 assists, averaged a 90% pass completion rate, and delivered over eight long balls per game — numbers that reflected a deep-lying playmaker operating at the very peak of his powers.
He was central to the 100-point La Liga season in 2011-12 and was part of the squad that won La Décima in 2014, though he famously missed the final itself due to suspension.
His honours at Madrid included one La Liga title, two Copa del Rey trophies, one Champions League, one UEFA Super Cup, and one Supercopa de España.
The managerial chapter has been equally compelling.
After delivering a historic invincible Bundesliga title with Bayer Leverkusen in 2024, Alonso took the Real Madrid job in June 2025, returning to the Bernabeu in a role that carried enormous expectation.
The tenure ended in January 2026 following a 3-2 defeat to rivals Barcelona in the Spanish Supercopa de Espana final, with tensions involving dressing room figures accelerating a departure that was described publicly as a mutual agreement.
Since then, he has been a free agent, and the speculation about his next move has intensified steadily, with many reports linking him to the Liverpool job.
The Liverpool connection has been loud and persistent.
The full picture of what went wrong at Real Madrid is now becoming clearer, and the version emerging from within Valdebebas carries a significant note of institutional regret about how and when the decision to remove Alonso was made.
According to AS, the feeling inside the club is that the real mistake was not acting sooner.
The decision to dismiss Alonso had effectively been made in December 2025, four weeks before it was actually executed.
The club gave him extra time in the hope that the team’s dynamic might shift, but also to find the right replacement.
In hindsight, that waiting period is viewed inside Valdebebas as time lost — a delay that served no real purpose and prolonged uncertainty within the squad.
The regret, as the source puts it plainly, is that they did not fire him in December.
Álvaro Arbeloa was promoted from within, but his arrival brought new complications, as the former defenderm, who made 233 appearances for Real Madrid and won two Champions Leagues, two Copa del Rey titles, one La Liga, and a Club World Cup, started his caretaker spell with an immediate Copa del Rey exit.
Since then, Madrid have shown two contrasting sides, looking competitive in Europe while struggling badly in La Liga, where they now sit nine points behind FC Barcelona with seven matches left.
The Champions League exit to Bayern Munich this week, despite a performance that drew no reproach from Florentino Perez in his postgame visit to the dressing room, has effectively confirmed what most already suspected.
A meeting between the Madrid hierarchy and Arbeloa is scheduled for next week, and as AS reports, the outcome will not be a surprise to almost anyone.
