Topics: Jurgen Klopp, Real Madrid, Football, La Liga, Transfers, Xabi Alonso
Jurgen Klopp wants two Real Madrid players to leave the club if he becomes the club's new manager, it has been claimed.
Real sacked former midfielder Xabi Alonso earlier this month after under eight months in charge.
He was immediately replaced by another former Los Blancos player in Alvaro Arbeloa, who had been coaching Real's Castilla squad.
His tenure got off to the worst possible start as Real were dumped out of the Copa del Rey at the third-round stage by second-tier Albacete.
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But Los Blancos bounced back with a 2-0 La Liga win over Levante, before thrashing Monaco 6-1 at the Bernabeu in the Champions League.
Details behind Arbeloa's appointment - such as contract length - have been few and far between, with Real only going as far as to simply announce that he was the new head coach at the time of Alonso's exit.
That has opened the door to speculation over whether the Spaniard could himself be replaced at the end of the season.
Diario AS report that former Liverpool boss Klopp's name was mentioned in association with the job by Real chiefs earlier this month, but that any plans to appoint him are currently 'on hold'.
The German is currently the global head of football at Red Bull, and when asked about the Real rumours by The Athletic, Klopp admitted he was 'partly amused and partly exasperated.
"I know I can coach a football team, but that doesn't mean I have to do it until my last day ... I don't want to be somewhere else," he said.
But Madrid-based outlet Defensa Central claim that, if Klopp were to be approached by Real and decide to take charge, he would want to sell two players.
Full-backs Daniel Carvajal and Ferland Mendy would, it is claimed, be the first two players out of the door as part of Klopp's rebuild.
Carvajal is in direct competition for a right-back spot with Trent Alexander-Arnold, who Klopp developed into one of the world's top attacking full-backs at Liverpool.
He returned from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury last year and, at 34, sees his contract expire this summer.
Mendy, meanwhile, has suffered from recurring muscle injury problems throughout much of his time in Spain, but they have been so severe this season as to restrict him to just two minutes of La Liga action and a single Champions League appearance.
The 30-year-old France left-back suffered a calf problem - his fourth injury in 12 months - earlier in January that is currently ruling him out of action.
