Xabi Alonso has emerged as the clear frontrunner for the Chelsea job this week, but though we are said to be making “positive progress” in talks with the former Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid coach, he’s said to be “seeking assurances about the role before agreeing” to join us.
The Times’ report doesn’t exactly spell out what these “assurances” are, but the insinuation is that he’s seeking a better experience than the one he walked into at Real Madrid last year, which left him “bruised”. Alonso was sacked just seven months into the job, which even by Chelsea standards would be pretty fast. Then again, Graham Potter and Liam Rosenior lasted just six and three-and-a-half months, respectively, so BlueCo might have serious convincing to do to assure Alonso’s need for assurances.
The other obvious area where assurances might need to be given is around transfers. To that effect, The Guardian report that even though Chelsea are “not about to change” our recruitment structure, “there is a recognition that someone of Alonso’s stature must be listened to when it comes to signings” and that we would not “impose players on him”. Guess I’ll believe that when I see that, but maybe Alonso’s more gullible. Let’s hope he’s more gullible.
The Guardian’s report adds that the squad believe that Alonso is “the ideal candidate” to get the team “back on track” as he’d be able to “command the respect of the dressing room and keep strong egos in line”. Alonso couldn’t quite manage that at Real, it should be noted, though he’s said to have been “keen to learn the lessons from his time at Madrid”.
With Alonso the frontrunner for us, Crystal Palace are jumping on the Andoni Iraola bandwagon while Fulham are trying to navigate their Marco Silva situation (and are potentially looking at Filipe Luís). One thing that all reports agree on is that Chelsea want to move fairly quickly on this issue after this weekend’s FA Cup and want to have the new man in place before the start of the World Cup. Ideally, we make the right call (or the best call we can make), not just the quick call.
