What happend with Liverpool and Alonso - and where does the club now?

When Liverpool's new sporting director Richard Hughes received a phone call from the agent Inaki Ibanez this week, it only served to confirm what he had long since expected: Xabi Alonso would be staying at Bayer Leverkusen this summer.

News of Alonso committing his future to the Bundesliga club on Friday was a blow for supporters hoping to see the Spaniard hired as Jurgen Klopp's successor.

However, internally at Liverpool, there was little sense of surprise. They had started focusing their attention on alternative candidates.

Hughes has a strong relationship with Ibanez having appointed another one of his clients, Andoni Iraola, as Bournemouth manager in June 2023. There had been dialogue between them so Liverpool knew where things stood.

Alonso was the clear favourite to take over from Klopp as a result of his work at Leverkusen, who he has led to the brink of the Bundesliga title, and his emotional bond with Liverpool from his playing days under Rafael Benitez. He ticked a lot of boxes.

But he was never offered the job and there were no face-to-face discussions. When Liverpool initially made contact with Alonso's camp shortly after Klopp's announcement on January 26 that he intended to step down in May, they were informed that the 42-year-old was concentrating on his job at Leverkusen and was unlikely to be available this summer. The door was not completely closed but the message was clear: this was not the time to talk.

A line of communication was kept open between Alonso's camp and Liverpool as the club was going through an off-field restructuring, with Hughes arriving under Michael Edwards, who was appointed as owners Fenway Sports Group's new football chief executive on March 12. Liverpool wanted their leadership team