THE EURO FILES: Xabi Alonso is the real deal as the charming former Liverpool star keeps Bayer Leverkusen flying… so how long until the Spanish giants come calling?

Xabi Alonso celebrated exactly one year as Bayer Leverkusen coach this week, and his team marked it with a victory that keeps them top of their Europa League group.

Leverkusen gambled on the former Liverpool midfielder last season after sacking Gerardo Seoane following a 2-0 defeat to Porto in the Champions League. They were 17th in the Bundesliga. They are now at the top.

And it’s not just because Alonso put them in the lead. The 41-year-old took the lead. Top of Real Madrid’s wishlist as the man to replace Carlo Ancelotti at the end of the season. Top of Bayern Munich’s wish list if it doesn’t work out with Thomas Tuchel. And top of the list of Liverpool managers beyond Jurgen Klopp’s reign.

Tactically, Alonso allowed Leverkusen to play fast and attack the football, but first, said the club’s sporting director Simon Rolfes, he showed his man-management skills by lifting players from the ground to His arrival.

“Because of their mental state at the time, it took them a while to get their confidence back,” he says of the turnaround that saw Leverkusen finish sixth and reach the League semi-finals Europa.

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Alonso is smart and charming in everything he does. In his pre-match press conference ahead of the midweek match against Molde, he politely told the translator that she should translate his answers into Norwegian and not German. He had already responded in German.

“If you just want to repeat me, then find a better answer than mine,” he said with a smile.

He now speaks German fluently – another page copied from the management manual of his tutors Pep Guardiola, José Mourinho and Ancelotti; speak their language, it will help you win their league. Can he win the Bundesliga?

On Sunday his team faces regional rival Cologne, 16 places below them, and it’s a measure of what Alonso has achieved in such a short space of time that they go into this match with some grumbling about how their last victory has taken place. . Alonso rested seven players for the 2-1 win over the Norwegian champions on Thursday. In the league, that makes five wins and a draw in the first six matches.

“We were a little too relaxed. It’s not good,” Alonso said after Molde’s victory. “It also happened against Häcken (their last rival in the Europa League, who they beat 4-0). We have to think about it.

Former Arsenal captain Granit .”

If Alonso wins the championship, will there be a microphone and a direct flight to Madrid? He has a contract until 2026. Madrid have not yet contacted him or his club. “It’s September,” he said two weeks ago when asked about the rumors. “This is not a problem.”

Ancelotti will leave this summer and to borrow the words of Mourinho, who would love to be Madrid’s first choice but knows he is no longer: you don’t need to be a ‘football Einstein’ to know who is their first choice.

Kane’s new winger at Bayern hailed by Muller

Harry Kane has a new winger at Bayern Munich and he has the potential to be one of the best, according to Thomas Muller. Despite starting just one game this season, 18-year-old Mathys Tel has scored six goals, the latest of which earned Bayern a victory over Copenhagen in the Champions League.

In just 231 minutes, he also made two assists, although that is not necessarily his strong point, Müller believes.

“If we remember Arjen Robben,” he said. “We also sometimes thought he should have seen the man next to him, but he was so focused on the goal that he scored a lot of goals. Mathys should keep doing his thing. In other words , it is greedy – long may it last.

Morata finally looks like Simeone

Diego Simeone once asked referee Cesar Soto Grado if he had something personal against Alvaro Morata, the response he received was: “He exaggerates too much.”

Simeone shared the anecdote with reporters, which seemed to suggest he might even agree.

Morata was never his manager’s idea of ​​the perfect striker. Last season he admitted he still missed Diego Costa. And somewhere between the surly Brazilian and the emotionless goal machine, Radamel Falcao finds the Atletico manager’s ideal centre-forward.

Morata has always been a nice but sensitive guy. Maybe too much at times to deal with the things that top players have to deal with, like moving abroad while still young.

He cried against Juventus when things were going badly and Gianluigi Buffon, on the treatment table next to him, told him: “Save it for home, public tears only please your critics and annoy your supporters.”

He was only 20 years old then. He turns 31 this month and it remains difficult to classify his career.

The fact that Real Madrid, Juventus, Milan, Chelsea and Atletico Madrid all wanted him at different times is a testament to his talent.

The fact that they also agreed to let him go is a reminder of his flaws. He has never scored 20 league goals in a season, but something different in this campaign.

He has 10 goals in 10 matches for club and country in all competitions. Simeone set him the target of 18 years in La Liga and he already has five starts out of four.

And it’s not just about the goals. “This is the Morata we need,” Simeone said after the Spaniard scored twice to win the Madrid derby. He may be at the start of his best season ever – and that can only be good for Atletico.

Jude ‘the new Di Stefano’ as he retains his purple spot

After his eighth goal in nine games midweek, Jude Bellingham was compared to Alfredo Di Stefano, Cristiano Ronaldo and Moses (the Old Testament prophet who parted the Red Sea, not ’80s midfielder Remi ).

The comparison to Ronaldo had more to do with the fact that his goal celebration was imitated by everyone from schoolchildren to fellow professionals.

Di Stefano’s image had more weight coming from Spanish football historian Alfredo Relaño, who wrote: “He is just as elegant (as Di Stefano) in the way he runs and uses the ball and just as fierce in the way he recovers it.” ‘

Two Legia Warsaw players arrested amid AZ Alkmaar unrest

Scenes of violence marked another AZ Alkmaar Europa Conference League match, this time with the arrest of two of their opponents’ players.

Legia Warsaw’s Radovan Pankov and Josue Pesqueira were removed from the team bus following Alkmaar’s 1-0 win.

Conflicting stories emerged, with claims from the Dutch side that the two men were involved in an assault.

Counterclaims from the Polish side claim that it was authoritarian stewardship that caused the problems.

Alkmaar was fined €80,000 (£69,000) after the second leg of last season’s European Conference semi-final, when thugs attacked an area where friends and family were sitting West Ham players.