Aldridge Exclusive: Liverpool MUST Beat Tottenham, Klopp To Madrid? &…

Published on March 12th, 2026

Speaking exclusively with BOYLE Sports , Liverpool icon John Aldridge has described his former club's next game against Tottenham as a "must win", speculated if Xabi Alonso could return to the club in the summer and gave his assessment on how Liverpool fans would react to Jurgen Klopp if he went to Real Madrid.

The Republic of Ireland hit man gave his perspective of his fellow attacking compatriots if Evan Ferguson should take a step back and score goals with Celtic and if Troy Parrott is destined to return to the Premier League.

Must Win Tottenham

The league is starting to come to the business end now, and we're running out of games. I think we have five home games. We've got to win a lot of them. We've got to win them all. We've got Chelsea at home as well. We've got to beat them. It's imperative that we beat Tottenham . You can't take any pity on anyone; you've just got to do your business.

Whether this week they can kick on, we'll see. Every home game, we've got to win every home game and do well away from home. My view is, we've got to come away unscathed from some difficult away games to have a good end to the season.

Xabi Alonso

Things happen in football. If Arne Slot doesn’t get the Champions League and doesn’t finish ahead of Man Utd or win the FA Cup, anything can happen. If it’s Thursday night football, then Arne Slot could go, and then you’d naturally look at Xabi Alonso, who is available. It’s a situation to look at in the summer, but you’d think that Alonso would be at the front of the line.

Klopp To Real Madrid?

We've got a massive charity game at Anfield in a week and a half's time, and I'm on the staff with Jurgen Klopp , so I’m going to ask him! I think we've moved on from Jurgen , but we'd love him back if Arne Slot were to go. Obviously, you would, because what he did for us, the passion he brought to the team, the club, and the fans was Bill Shankly -esque.

If Arne Slot were to go, we’d love him to come back. But it doesn't work like that, does it? If he wanted to go to Real Madrid, then good luck to him. Good luck to him, as long as when he plays against Liverpool in the Champions League in years to come, I’d want him to play his reserves!

Evan Ferguson

It's a pity for Evan Ferguson ; obviously, the same sort of thing happened to Troy Parrott. The next big hope, and then Troy had the dip, but he's come again. He had the right move at the right time. Fantastic. He's been brilliant for us. He's been like a Robbie Keane . His goals have been amazing to get Ireland into the playoffs.

Evan Ferguson has been back up, and I'm thinking, yeah, the future looks a bit rosier here. Let's hope that he can build and build Ferguson and that this is just a little injury because Ireland need strikers the way we play. We need goal scorers to get us where we need to get. Troy's delivered of late. Let's hope he can deliver the next game or two if we can get there. He's been amazing for us.

Celtic Loan?

Evan Ferguson to Celtic ? Celtic is a tremendous club with a great fan base. With all due respect to the Scottish Premiership , it's not what the Premier League is, but it's still great, and it would be a good experience scoring goals.

I played for Tranmere in the first division, which is the one below, for years, and it didn't stop me scoring goals for Ireland . The experience I had in Spain , and then coming back to Tranmere , helped me. Sometimes it's all about you, not just about where you're playing at, or what level you're playing at, but what you can do within the structure of your international side.

Is Troy Parrott Premier League Bound?

If Liam Delap can go from Ipswich to Chelsea , then why can't Troy Parrott go to a huge club in the Premier League ? It’s what fits, even an understudy to Erling Haaland or whatever, hypothetically. He's the type of player that needs to go into a team, gain knowledge and experience, because he is still relatively young.