Liverpool icon Xabi Alonso's future clear after Pep Guardiola's Man City plan emerges

Former midfielder looks likelier than ever to become the next manager, with Carlo Ancelotti expected to depart the Bernabeu at the end of the current campaign.

And with now looking , the nightmare scenario of Alonso pitching up at the Etihad Stadium should be avoided. Liverpool fans would not have liked that outcome with Guardiola having been deciding his future over the last few weeks.

Amid a run of four consecutive defeats for , Guardiola looks set to pen an extension with the Etihad side. According to , it will be a one year deal with the option of a second.

Alonso won the Bundesliga last season, with Bayer Leverkusen becoming the first German side ever to go a full season unbeaten. He also won the German Cup and reached the final of the , losing to Atalanta.

This year has not gone quite as well so far. Liverpool, of course, beat Alonso's team 4-0 at Anfield with scoring a hat-trick. Ahead of the club game resuming following the latest international break, Leverkusen is nine points behind . It has only lost once domestically but has drawn five times out of 10 fixtures.

"It is painful, the result more than the performance probably, but this is the ," Alonso said in a competitive capacity. "This is the highest level. It wasn't enough for us.

"It can happen at Anfield that you lose and for sure to lose 4-0 it is not nice. It is hard because at 2-0 we were trying to fight for the one ball that would give us hope. But Liverpool with spaces, they are a top team for that and we were punished for the last two goals.

"It was a risk we had to take but before that, it was a pity. If we managed 1-0 for 15-20 minutes and not straight to 2-0, we were alive and anything could happen."

Liverpool.com says: Alonso remains a very highly rated coach and he was never going to sustain what he did last season this time around. That is why it was a risk to say early on that he was going to be staying at Leverkusen.

Real Madrid would be a very different job but Alonso has done more than enough in his managerial career so far to suggest he could succeed. And after that, while Liverpool will be very content with Arne Slot at the moment, there is still time for Alonso to end up at Anfield at some point down the line.