Bayer Leverkusen’s highly-rated young manager Xabi Alonso is reportedly emerging as an increasingly strong candidate to replace David Moyes as West Ham United manager.
The Spanish tactician, who worked under greats such as Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti during his playing days, has made a promising start to life in coaching, having impressed since he took the Leverkusen job.
According to the Sun, he’s now in contention to take over from Moyes at West Ham after what is likely to go down as a disappointing season, even if the Hammers do manage to stay up.
It remains to be seen if Alonso is quite ready to make the step up to managing in a competitive league like the English top flight, but it would be intriguing to see what he could do at a club who have generally been under-achievers for many years.
Alonso is still inexperienced, but looks like he could be worth trusting as a long-term option to develop an exciting new-look project at the London Stadium.
Moyes was doing very well with West Ham until a dip in form this season and it might now be time for a change.