Klopp leaving Liverpool: Lineker highlights main obstacle in way of Reds securing ‘obvious replacement’
Gary Lineker has explained why he thinks Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso would be the “obvious replacement” for Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool.
The Premier League giants are facing the difficult task of identifying a suitable replacement for Klopp, who has announced that he will leave the club at the end of this season.
Klopp is in his ninth season as Liverpool manager but he will depart in the summer with two years remaining on his current contract.
Leverkusen head coach Alonso is the current favourite to replace Klopp as he is doing a magnificent job with the Bundesliga side, who are unbeaten in the league and four points clear of second-placed Bayern Munich.
While Lineker thinks Alonso is the “obvious replacement” for Klopp, the BBC presenter has warned Liverpool that he will “also be in the thoughts of other clubs”.
“The obvious replacement, there could be a couple, is Xabi Alonso. The job he is doing at Bayer Leverkusen I imagine he will be in their thoughts,” Lineker said via The Rest is Football podcast.
“I think he will also be in the thoughts of other football clubs. He is very young in his managerial career, slightly inexperienced, but the job he is doing at Bayer Leverkusen could attract clubs like Bayern Munich because things are not going so well for them.
“It will be interesting who they go for because they will need someone to follow in the footsteps of Jurgen Klopp which is a tremendously difficult thing to do.”
During his press conference on Friday, Klopp was insistent that he will not have a say in who will replace him in the summer.
“No, why should I?” Klopp told reporters.
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“It looks like I do all the work but I don’t, I can’t. That means all what we built in the last eight and half years is an incredibly strong structure behind the scenes so everything goes in the right direction.
“That’s the good news. That is one of the reasons why I can leave.
“My responsibility was so big that my idea was always to put everything in place to help with everything that this club gets stronger and stronger and we did that not to perfection but as good as we could.
“So many people work here with only one idea: to find a perfect solution for Liverpool and I am pretty sure that will happen.
“And the last thing they need is advice from the old man walking out who tells them ‘By the way, make sure you bring him in’. I will definitely not do that. I don’t want to be the passenger who is disturbing that process.
”They will get a top manager here, there will be good football.”
