Borussia Mönchengladbach have handed Celtic some good news as they look to appoint Xabi Alonso as their new first team manager. The ex-Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich midfielder is currently learning his trade in the dugout with Spanish third division side Real Sociedad B. The Guardian is reporting that the World Cup winner will become manager in June, succeeding Marco Rose.
Rose will join Borussia Dortmund at the end of the season and the frontrunner to replace Rose was the man that replaced him in Salzburg, Jesse Marsch. Alonso won three Bundesliga titles with Bayern and will arrive looking to make a splash with Gladbach. Sport Bild reported that Marsch was one of the front runners to replace Rose; however, now that Alonso looks set to be installed as the new boss, Celtic may harbour some hope of attracting the USA coach to Celtic Park.
Marsch insisted that his work at RB Salzburg is not done as the 47-year-old looks to complete another double success in Austria this season. However, Marsch might have catapulted himself into the favourite amongst the supporters for the role after he issued a ‘come and get me’ plea to Celtic when speaking to BBC.
“It’s an amazing club and it would be an honour to even be considered. But I also have a job to do here. My way of working is really to focus in on the job that I’m doing and concentrate on the moment. And the more that I do that the more other possibilities can arise.”
Celtic should pull out all the stops to entice him to the club as he is the standout candidate, as well as being relatively attainable at this moment in time. The future of RB Leipzig’s Jullien Naglesmann could be the only stumbling block for a move for Marsch. The German is widely tipped as the next ‘big thing’ in management and there are a number of moving parts involved with predicting the moves of Bundesliga teams.
