spectacular goalscoring numbers. Leverkusen pulled decisively clear at the top with a 3-0 win over Bayern in February, a tactical triumph for Alonso that only served to heighten demand for him around the world.
When the announcement came from Saberner Strassed in February that Tuchel would be leaving at the end of the season it came with the suspicion that Bayern were trying to position themselves at the head of the queue for Alonso's services next summer. Another of his former clubs, Liverpool, were also on the hunt for their Jurgen Klopp successor. Then came the most remarkable turn in Leverkusen's season.
More than just a one-hit wonder
This wasn't going to be another Monaco, Ajax or even the Leverkusen of 2002, stripped for parts by Bayern and the rest of Europe's monied elite. Instead, on March 29, Alonso announced he would be staying for the 2024-25 season. "At this moment I feel this is the right place for me to be to develop as a coach," he said. "I am a young coach, but I have to feel it, and right now I feel that this is the right place."
Crucial to that sense is the belief that he has a team ready to develop alongside him. That will mean keeping the core of the squad together. There may be a sale in the vein of Moussa Diaby's $64.5 million move to Aston Villa; Jeremie Frimpong has consistently been linked with big clubs in England and the rest of Europe and sources around the game believe he could be one of the more likely to depart. However, that deal part-funded the acquisition of first-team lynchpins Granit Xhaka, Alejandro Grimaldo, Jonas Hoffman and Victor Boniface, so one sale ought not to inspire fear in the Leverkusen ranks.
Crucially, some of the most significant figures in the Leverkusen ranks are intent on staying with Alonso. Florian Wirtz, perhaps Europe's outstanding young creator, is set to stay for next season. Given the more cautious outlook for Premier League expenditure this summer, the prospects of keeping young talent such as Boniface, Piero Hincapie and Exequiel Palacios are also rosier.
The good times, then, may not be over for the German champions.
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