Bayer Leverkusen's revitalization: How Xabi Alonso took 'Neverkusen' from a relegation fight to first place

The German club have quickly become a team nobody in Europe wants to face

LEVERKUSEN -- From the chief executive to the players, everyone associated with Bayer Leverkusen will tell you it is much too soon to start talking about the first Bundesliga title. It's just 11 games. The team so cruelly dubbed "Neverkusen" after the trophy-less, nearly treble of 2002 has been burnt often enough.

"Trophies will be decided in May," warns club CEO Fernando Carro. "We've still won nothing," counsels Granit Xhaka, a man who knows from grim experience that even the brightest of starts don't guarantee you a title when you are being chased by one of the continent's super clubs. "The challenge now is not up against Bayern, it's against what we can do," insists Xabi Alonso, the head coach who has taken Leverkusen from the relegation zone to top of the table in a little over 13 months.

They might not want to talk about championships in November, but it is at least fair to note that if this were going to be the team to bring the Meisterschale to the BayArena for the first time in the club history, to win a major honor for the first time since 1993, they have gone about it the right way. The 31 points they have accrued through 11 games is the best record of any Bundesliga side, level with the Bayern Munich of 2015-16, one in which Alonso played a key role.