****.ING.GUTTED
Agreed on Gerrard getting nowhere near it. I HOPE there are enough ppl at Liverpool who saw his time at Villa and realise he is far far from ready. Plus ex player managers have hardly had a good record recently, him, Wazza, Fat Frank etc. all terrible.
Alonso is the stand out candidate and it sounds like Leverkusen wont stand in his way. The only worry is he has only a single year of managerial experience. But I guess Pep and Zidane did fine (albeit in a 2 team league). Alonso has taken a mid table German side, who were in the drop zone, and has them sitting top of the league ahead of Bayern. He was only denied a European trophy by Jose/Roma doing what Jose does best and setting up shop, diving, time wasting, cheating, and getting ridiculously lucky (look the match stats from that game, it should have been 4/5-0) the omens are good with Alonso, and the style of play is broadly similar. He also has a bit of an aura about him.
If he doesn't fancy it, or ends up at Bayern/Real…..hhmmmm. I think we can disregard Ange cos Levy will want 2 billion quid and Pool wont pay that. Nagelsmann I'm not sure on. DeZerbi I would have no objections to, but the issue there may be the step up in level/pressure.
It's a massive call for the Pool Board though. **** this one up and we have all seen what happens, Moyesy, Ole, Ragnick, Emery at Arsenal, any one of a dozen Chelsea managers, Tim Sherwood, Jose (at Utd, Chelsea the second time AND Spurs) etc.
Still gutted though. I knew it would end eventually but I thought he had another year or 3 in him yet, especially with the team playing so well this year.