Liverpool confirmed their decision to sack Arne Slot over the weekend with Andoni Iraola the overwhelming favourite, less than a month after Chelsea appointed Xabi Alonso
In the immediate aftermath of Liam Rosenior’s departure from Chelsea in late-April, a club source told football.london that the sporting leadership team at Stamford Bridge would take a careful and considered approach before announcing his permanent successor at the end of the season.
Careful: tick. Sources have since said Chelsea did not want to rush anything when it came to sourcing Rosenior’s replacement. The Blues underwent a period of “self-reflection”, as per an official club statement, keen to avoid mistakes made previously in BlueCo’s tenure.
Considered: tick. Chelsea had a look at a multitude of options. The club did some ringing around before making their final decision.
At the end of the season: not quite. Chelsea ended up appointing Xabi Alonso as the club’s new first-team manager, with the Spaniard starting his job next month, on a four-year contract moments after losing 1-0 in the FA Cup final to Manchester City last month.
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In truth, it would have been seen as risky to not take advantage of the 44-year-old, who was a free agent following his departure from Real Madrid in January, being available and open to a Premier League switch. One source with a strong knowledge of the matter told football.london that once the Blues made their mind up that Alonso was the right man to spearhead the club’s long-term project, they wanted to finalise things as quickly as possible. Chelsea wanted to take such talent off the market.
Throughout the process of appointing Alonso, Blues supporters online were doing their best not to get too carried away – they still have scars from past over-exuberance and Alonso’s long-time Liverpool connection had Chelsea fans paranoid. That, along with Arne Slot being under serious fire following a poor season at Anfield, had supporters up at night.
At the time, Liverpool sources were telling journalists that Slot’s job was safe. There were seemingly no plans to part company with the Dutchman, who lifted the Premier League title in his debut season in the Reds job. However, at the weekend, Liverpool confirmed Slot’s immediate departure from the club.
For Liverpool, the Alonso ship has sailed. The noises coming from the red side of Merseyside suggest they were not in for their former midfielder regardless. Andoni Iraola, one of the several names on Chelsea’s shortlist to replace Rosenior, is the overwhelming favourite.
It was a surprise to many that Liverpool did not pursue Alonso. Perhaps the Reds owners still held somewhat of a grudge after Alonso decided not to replace Jurgen Klopp at Anfield – with the Spaniard opting to stay another season at Bayer Leverkusen before taking the Real Madrid job 12 months on from rejecting the Merseyside club.
From Chelsea’s point of view, this is all irrelevant now. Getting a manager of Alonso’s talent, pedigree and calibre was seen as an enormous coup at the time – and still is – not least because it looked as if they had beaten Liverpool to their former midfielder’s signature.
The noise now suggests that was never the case and the Reds would rather move in a direction with Iraola’s style of football; one they believe is more akin to Klopp’s way of playing – which brought the club their most successful period in recent history. We might never know, with absolute certainty at least, because there are contrasting reports doing the rounds at the time of writing.
Either way, Alonso will be in the dugout when Chelsea take on Liverpool next season. He will likely be up against Iraola, who, interestingly, shares the same agent as his compatriot Alonso.
The soon-to-be-confirmed – or so it seems – Liverpool head coach Iraola and already-confirmed Chelsea manager Alonso go way back. The two Spaniards, who were born less than 15 miles apart from each other, played alongside each other at amateur youth football club Antiguoko.
Quite often, post-match, the two opposing managers will share a drink with one another. In Alonso’s case, given his sophisticated elegance and polished grace, it may well be an expensive bottle of red. The Basque region is famous for its fine wines.
Iraola and Alonso will have plenty to catch up on if that does happen next season; their youth, their careers and maybe, just maybe, the whole managerial merry-go-round that is now approaching its conclusion, from Liverpool and Chelsea’s point of views anyway, this summer.
