Liverpool icon Xavi Alonso is the bookies’ favourite to take over from Jurgen Klopp (Picture: Getty)

Dietmar Hamann is confident Xabi Alonso would jump at the chance to manage Liverpool but hopes to see the Spaniard stay on at Bayer Leverkusen for another season.

Last week, Jurgen Klopp sent shockwaves around the football world with his announcement that he will step down as Liverpool head coach in the summer after a glittering nine-year tenure at Anfield.

The 56-year-old has steered Liverpool to seven pieces of silverware across his magnificent reign and will be determined to add to that number before his departure, with the Merseyside giants battling for honours in the Premier League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.

Legendary ex-Liverpool and Spain midfielder Alonso, one of the club’s heroes in Istanbul, is the bookmakers’ favourite to take over the reins from Klopp after an exceptional start to his managerial career in charge of Leverkusen.
Hamann, who lifted the Champions League trophy with Alonso back in 2005, has been blown away by his old team-mate’s success and feels it would be ‘very hard’ to turn down Liverpool should they come calling.

‘Well, the story coming out of Leverkusen, he extended his contract earlier in the season but I?m sure they?ve got an agreement so that if he wants to leave in the summer, he can go,’ Hamann told The Stand with Eamon Dunphy podcast.

‘As a football romantic, I would love to see h...