Who's on deck to replace Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool?

(Alonso had the last laugh in the end — he was the one who lifted the trophy.)

Since retiring from the game in 2017 Alonso has focused on getting his coaching licenses and becoming a world-class leader in European soccer. He began his coaching journey with the Real Madrid and Real Sociedad youth teams in Spain before taking the reins at Germany's Bayer Leverkusen in 2022. Alonso's tenure at Leverkusen has been the stuff of dreams — he took the club from second-to-last to Europa League qualification in the span of half a season.

Alonso spent most of his playing career at Real Madrid and was considered a shoo-in for the Madrid job if Carlo Ancelotti decided to retire. But Ancelotti is still going strong, and Liverpool could be the next best thing for Alonso if he wants a bigger job. He spent five years playing for Liverpool in the mid-2000s and earned a lot of fan support for his efficient, no-nonsense style in midfield.

Thomas Tuchel: Speaking of Germany, let's shoot southeast from Leverkusen to Munich and check in on erstwhile Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel. The visionary German leader was the first victim of Todd Boehly's big-money Chelsea takeover, and he's been toiling away at Germany's biggest club ever since. While things have been OK for Tuchel at Bayern, they haven't been great, and rumors are swirling about his future with the club. (Bayern has been so dominant in German soccer in recent years that merely winning the league isn't good enough for its fans and owners.)

Many pundits believe that Tuchel is a stellar coach who has fallen victim to unorganized leadership teams. (The man did, after all, bounce from Paris Saint Germain to Chelsea to Bayern Munich.) It'd be fascinating to see what an intellectual coach like Tuchel could do in an environment where he was given time to succeed. Liverpool could be that environment — and accordingly, it'd do well to consider him.

Roberto de Zerbi: Brighton Hove & Albion is the Premier League team on everyone's lips — for the past three seasons the South Coast club has used data and clever hiring strategies to wildly outperform its resources. Central to this over-performance is Italian coach Roberto de Zerbi. When he joined Brighton the club had just lost its talismanic long-term coach, and he was tasked with carrying on that legacy while moving the club forward. Sound familiar? It should. If anyone has recent experience that aligns with Liverpool's situation, it's de Zerbi.

Jose Mourinho:  This one's a long shot, but wouldn't it be delicious if Mourinho made his long-awaited return to the Premier League with a club like Liverpool? In many ways, it's the worst idea of all time: Mourinho is reactive, explosive and self-serving, while Liverpool's leadership team is patient, calm and focused on the collective. But that mismatch just makes the union all the more intriguing. It won't happen. It can't happen. But...it'd be so much fun if it did.