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The rumours around Real Madrid’s future leadership are slowly intensifying as fans are expecting Carlo Ancelotti to leave the club at the end of the current season. Ancelotti was always linked to join the Brazilian national team but denied any intentions of switching jobs due to his commitment to Los Blancos. But a series of poor results lately have fuelled talks of Ancelotti leaving and the primary candidate to replace the Italian tactician remains to be Xabi Alonso. The ex-Real Madrid midfielder is currently managing Bayer Leverkusen and seems to be the favourite to take over the reins at the Bernabeu.
Any these rumours have now been further intensified by comments from Leverkusen’s CEO Fernando Carro, who has said that Leverkusen will not oppose any decision taken by Alonso about his future. He said, “Xabi Alonso’s future has to be decided in the next three or four weeks”, emphasizing that the club will need to plan for its tenure beyond Xabi Alonso. He added by saying, “That's important for us going into the planning of next season of course. That's why there'll be clarity in the not-too-distant future for sure.” There has also been a mention of a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ in Xabi Alonso’s contract.
Gentleman agreement in Xabi Alonso’s contract explained
The ‘gentleman agreement’ in Alonso’s contract states that if any club which Alonso has previously played for, comes forth for signing Xabi as a manager, the club will not reject the offer outright and sit down to discuss further proceedings. Alonso has previously played for Liverpool, Real Madrid, SB Eibar and Real Sociedad, strengthening Real Madrid’s case of bringing him on-board.
Leverkusen however, will have a tough job finding a successor to Alonso who has brought multiple laurels to the club in the two seasons that he was in-charge. He was also the architect of Leverkusen’s historic 51-game unbeaten streak during last season and led them to two titles and a superb Europa League campaign.
