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Xabi Alonso hasn’t ruled out a move to the Premier League despite snubbing a return to Liverpool last month.
The Spaniard had been one of the favourites to replace Jurgen Klopp as Reds manager
Alonso ultimately decided to stay put at Bayer Leverkusen.
Alonso is on the verge of leading his side to their first ever Bundesliga title, with Leverkusen currently boasting a 16-point advantage
Meanwhile, a potential treble is also on the cards, having both set up a DFB-Pokal final showdown with FC Kaiserslautern and reached the Europa League semi-finals.
Despite snubbing a return to Liverpool to replace Klopp, he admits a return to the Premier League in the future remains a ‘nice thought’.
Alonso
”You never know, at the moment I have enough on my plate to think about,”
“But I'm still young as a coach and for sure it's a nice one (thought).
“I speak regularly with some colleagues who coach in the Premier League and they know that each game is really tough to prepare and to play.
"It's a very exciting competition with so many great players, coaches, great clubs, stadiums - and West Ham is one of them.
“We are facing them tomorrow with great respect but with great excitement that we have a great chance to go through and keep going in a great season as well.”
it remains possible that Alonso could face off against his former club in the final in Dublin next month.
But having rejected one reunion with the Reds, the Spaniard isn’t getting ahead of himself when it comes to a potential future showdown.
Alonso added
”You need to fight a lot to get that destiny,”
“At the moment we have to think about West Ham and they are playing against Atalanta. Dublin is a little bit far away to think about. We're in the quarter-finals, it's a great chance to go further in the competition.
“We're very ambitious, we have a great squad, we have enough players available to have a great starting formation, and a great impact from the bench. This is really our focus.
“Of course we know West Ham very well. They have great experience in Europe, they won the Conference League last season, and also in the past in the Europa League they've had good results, so it's a top opponent.
“We have the painful memory of last year’s semi-final against Roma, so we have to show a good performance, impose our game.
“There's a great anticipation, a great atmosphere within the team. It's an important step we want to take.”
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