Nicholas Parry*

Florian Wirtz has informed German national teammates and several of his former Leverkusen teammates, including Jonathan Tah, now at Bayern, that Sebastián Parrilla, Xabi Alonso’s long-time assistant at Leverkusen and most recently part of his staff in Madrid, has very recently reached out to him. Jeremie Frimpong is also understood to be involved in these exchanges, with direct contact even with Xabi Alonso himself never having stopped, but what elevates this beyond routine contact is the depth and tone of the conversations, Parrilla is said to have asked highly specific and unusually concrete questions about life in Liverpool, the internal dressing room dynamic, the atmosphere around the club on and off the pitch, and even which structural or sporting aspects would require adjustment. Inside those circles, Florian is increasingly indicating that his preferred outcome would be Xabi Alonso taking over at Liverpool, and the reactivation of contact at assistant level, combined with the detail and intent behind these discussions, is not being interpreted as casual or nostalgic communication. It points far more towards something deliberate, coordinated and quietly progressing in the background, with strong indications that Alonso and his staff are at the very least seriously exploring, if not already preparing for, a potential move into that environment.