Liverpool’s season has unravelled with a speed that few anticipated when the club defended its Premier League title just twelve months ago. Ten league defeats and a painful 2-1 loss away at Brighton last weekend have tipped the club into an existential managerial debate, with Arne Slot’s tenure increasingly resembling a countdown rather than a coaching spell.
German publication BILD has reported that Slot is “on the verge” of being sacked, with Xabi Alonso positioned as the preferred successor and currently waiting on a “concrete” offer from the club’s hierarchy. The report from journalist Axel Hesse, who has strong Liverpool sources having covered Florian Wirtz’s transfer last summer, claims that Michael Edwards at FSG has maintained a line of communication with Alonso since the spring of 2024.
What makes this a more complicated story than a simple sack-and-replace narrative is the significant counterweight of The Independent’s Miguel Delaney, who has reported that there are “no current plans to move on Arne Slot,” with the hierarchy citing several mitigating factors for the season’s disappointing trajectory, not least the tragic death of Diogo Jota.
Fabrizio Romano has been characteristically precise in downplaying the more breathless claims. “Nothing is agreed with Xabi Alonso. There is an appreciation of course, former Liverpool player, top coach, so for sure the feelings are positive between Xabi Alonso and Liverpool. But nothing at all has been agreed as of today,” Romano stated on his YouTube channel.
The picture painted by those across multiple sources is one of a club suspended in limbo, with internal disagreement at the highest level about whether this season’s failures are a manageable blip or a structural sign that Slot cannot take this squad where it needs to go. Alexis Mac Allister’s comment that “we changed too many things” over the summer hinted at dressing room unease, while Salah’s very public departure announcement only added to the perception of a club mid-transition and struggling to manage it.
Liverpool remain in fifth place, just a point clear of Chelsea in sixth, and five points behind fourth. Champions League qualification may yet be secured via a fifth-place finish if UEFA awards England a fifth spot. That lifeline means any mid-season sacking remains unlikely, but Alonso is reportedly unwilling to take over during an active campaign anyway.
His record since leaving Bayer Leverkusen has not been unblemished either. A short stint at Real Madrid exposed tactical limitations that his time in Germany had kept hidden, and there will be real questions among the more sober voices at Anfield about whether the emotional connection justifies the appointment. Former Everton CEO Keith Wyness was blunt in his assessment, saying Slot “will be sacked” if Champions League football is not secured. The summer, regardless, looks transformative at Anfield.
