Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen face West Ham on Thursday night (Picture: Getty Images)
Xabi Alonso says managing in the Premier League is a nice thought and ‘you never know’ what the future might bring, despite rejecting the chance to move to Liverpool in the summer.
The Bayer Leverkusen boss has done an incredible job at the club, attracting interest from Liverpool and Bayern Munich as a result.
However, he has decided to stay where he is for at least another season as he continues to develop as a coach and hopes to add to the silverware he is sure to win this campaign, with the Bundesliga title nearly wrapped up already.
Despite turning down the advances from Anfield, Alonso is certainly not ruling out a Premier League return in the future, but is now focussing on Leverkusen’s Europa League campaign which continues against West Ham on Thursday night.
‘You never know, at the moment I have enough on my plate to think about,’ he told a press conference on a future Premier League move. ‘But I’m still young as a coach and for sure it’s a nice one (thought).
‘I speak regularly with some colleagues who coach in the Premier League and they know that each game is really tough to prepare and to play.
‘It’s a very exciting competition with so many great players, coaches, great clubs, stadiums – and West Ham is one of them. We are facing them tomorrow with great respect but with great excitement that we have a great chance to go through and keep going in a great season as well.’
Alonso remains on course for a remarkable treble this season (Picture: Getty Images)
Alonso’s side host West Ham on Thursday before the return leg of their Europa League quarter-final next week, with Liverpool also in the last eight of the competition as they take on Atalanta.
The prospect of Alonso taking on the Reds in the final in Dublin remains on the cards, but he is trying not to think about that just yet.
‘You need to fight a lot to get that destiny,’ said the 42-year-old. ‘At the moment we have to think about West Ham and they are playing against Atalanta. Dublin is a little bit far away to think about. We’re in the quarter-finals, it’s a great chance to go further in the competition.
‘We’re very ambitious, we have a great squad, we have enough players available to have a great starting formation, and a great impact from the bench. This is really our focus.’
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