Xabi Alonso staying with Leverkusen in blow to Spurs

Xabi Alonso looks set to stay with Bayer Leverkusen beyond the current campaign. Fernando Carro, the German club’s chief executive, confirmed his head coach’s future in a recent interview with Spanish outlet AS.

“He has a contract with us until 2024.” proclaimed Carro. “He is happy here and we are happy with him. We are enjoying working together and I am sure we will be with him next season. And hopefully, there will be many more, but in football you can’t look much further.”

Spurs have been without permanent manager for 6 weeks

Tottenham Hotspur has been linked with Alonso for weeks now. The north London outfit have been on the search for a new permanent boss since firing Antonio Conte on March 26. Cristian Stellini took over as a temporary head coach for about a month before departing the club as well. Ryan Mason was then appointed acting head coach on April 24.

The former Liverpool and Real Madrid midfielder has been a revelation with Leverkusen this season. Alonso entered the fray in early October as the club sat 17th in the Bundesliga table. However, the former star midfielder has the German team up to sixth in the standings.

Leverkusen is first sernior coaching job for Xabi Alonso

Carro was also asked about hiring Alonso at the beginning of the season despite his lack of experience. The coach’s only previous head coaching job was with the Real Sociedad B side. “We had been following Xabi Alonso for a long time, we had him on our list of possible future coaches for the moment we thought fit,” Carro said.

“Not being able to come back with [previous coach] Gerardo Seoane, who was doing a great job and with whom we had finished third last year, we decided to go for Xabi.”

“We needed a new boost and for that we had a list of various coaches, and we had very good references for Xabi. We spoke with him and we realized that he really had very clear ideas, he had some very important abilities and other virtues, and very important experience in the world of football.”

Along with rising the ranks in the German league, Alonso also has the club in the Europa League semifinals. Leverkusen is set to play Italian side Roma in the first leg of the matchup on Thursday.

If Alonso is now unavailable, Spurs will now have to turn to different targets. Julian Nagelsmann is reportedly still in the running for the job. This is despite the fact that there are salary demand concerns with the German coach. Burnley’s Vincent Kompany is also apparently still in the running.

PHOTO: IMAGO / Revierphoto