Watch out, Liverpool! Bayern Munich make Roberto De Zerbi leading candidate to replace Thomas Tuchel as Brighton boss’ suitors stack up

Following last week's big news that Xabi Alonso intends to remain loyal to current club Bayer Leverkusen, The Times reports that attention in Munich has now turned to De Zerbi. The Italian is said to be admired by new Bayern director Max Eberl, with the wheels already in motion to gauge his interest and availability. Sporting CP's Ruben Amorim is the other name on their two-man shortlist.

Liverpool were also targeting Alonso as a replacement for Jurgen Klopp but have had their eye on De Zerbi too. Amorim is another heavily linked with Anfield, suggesting there is plenty of potential for Liverpool and Bayern to clash heads in the coming weeks. De Zerbi has the added benefit of already speaking English - but not German - and being proven in the Premier League after doing a remarkbale job with Brighton. Last season, the Seagulls achieved their highest ever league finish (sixth in the Premier League) and qualified for European football for the first time ever.

De Zerbi left his future rather open when he spoke ahead of Brighton's 2-1 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday: "I want to speak with my club. I have a contract but the problem is not the contract, the problem is to find the same plan, the same target, the same vision for the future.

"I have not decided yet what is my future, because I have the contract, but anyway I want to speak with [owner] Tony [Bloom], my club, to understand their plan, to understand his plan, the Tony plan. Then we take the decision together, without problems. I want to keep my ambition, my motivation. I live for football 24 hours a day. I want to know what is the plan, what is the project, what is the future because if I don't feel comfortable, I don't feel the right motivation, I can't stay any longer."

Prior to his success with Brighton, De Zerbi had made his name doing similarly good things with Sassuolo. Under his guidance, the club, who had spent their history in Italy's lower leagues prior to 2013, enjoyed back-to-back eighth place finishes in Serie A in 2019/20 and 2020/21. Three of his Sassuolo team were then part of Italy's victorious squad at Euro 2020.

Put simply, De Zerbi will soon have plenty to consider. Based on his recent comments, it sounds as though he is only prepared to stay at Brighton if the club can match his ambition, having slightly fallen away from the heights of last season. Bayern would be a greater challenge, moving to a brand new country, although it's not as if he hasn't done it before after working abroad in both Ukraine, with Shakhtar Donetsk, and England in his career to date. But the level of competition to win the Premier League would be much fiercer.