“I think the rumors have been circulating for some time now. And I know exactly what your question is getting at, but it has nothing to do with me,“ Klopp said when asked on the Austrian channel Servus TV if his phone had started ringing after Xabi’s departure, according to quotes translated by EFE. “It has actually rung, but not from Madrid,” the former Liverpool coach said with a laugh, insisting that the news “hasn’t affected him at all.”
Klopp stated that Alonso has shown that he is a very talented coach and that his exit, after only half a year in the position, “is another sign that something isn’t working perfectly there.”
“This shows several things: on the one hand, that we [coaches] no longer have any time, and on the other hand, that the demands at Real Madrid are, logically, enormous,” he said.
Klopp expressed surprise at Alonso’s departure and noted how rumors that something wasn’t working between the coach and the Madrid squad “started relatively early.”
“I think when you arrive after a legend and an incredibly good coach, who had a very specific way of coaching his team -- Carlo Ancelotti -- if you arrive there and try to implement some new rules, this time it seems it has proven too difficult,” he said.