Chelsea have reportedly made Xabi Alonso their early favourite for the vacant managerial role, but the club will need to address structural issues before they can expect the Spaniard to accept.<\/p>\n
The January appointment of Liam Rosenior as Enzo Maresca\u2019s replacement lasted just 106 days and came amid a collapse that has almost certainly cost Chelsea a spot in the Champions League. That sequence has intensified the imperative of selecting a manager who will be given the tools and authority to deliver.<\/p>\n
According to reports, Alonso has moved out in front of a number of candidates. His standing is linked to a managerial identity formed at clubs where he has been both player and coach. Persuading him to join will require changes to how decisions are made above the dugout.<\/p>\n
Co-owner Behdad Eghbali\u2019s plan to sign exclusively young players with high potential is overseen by sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart alongside recruitment directors Joe Shields and Sam Jewell. That recruitment framework has not produced the intended results and has prompted vocal opposition from players including Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez, Marc Cucurella and Tosin Adarabioyo.<\/p>\n
As Mauricio Pochettino recently warned, “Chelsea\u2019s owners need to listen to something other than data.” The issue, as laid out by departing manager Enzo Maresca, was a perceived lack of trust in his judgement. Reports indicate Maresca faced pressure from upstairs over player selection, with debates often centred on fitness and the desire to accelerate the progression of the club\u2019s project players. Teenage winger Est\u00eav\u00e3o is thought to have been at the centre of that debate.<\/p>\n
Any prospective appointment must have clarity over the manager\u2019s remit. If Alonso is to implement new formations, demote underperforming players or make other substantial calls, he will require the autonomy to do so. The owners began with an ambitious, long-term project; for that project to work they must place faith in the manager whose job is to manage the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea must give Xabi Alonso full control over selection, formation and recruitment strategy and all<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1163],"tags":[1505,1162],"class_list":["post-13747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-transfers","tag-accountability","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}