Chelsea players have identified Xabi Alonso as the manager they believe can take the squad forward, according to reports. The Guardian says Alonso sits at the top of the dressing-room wish list, with many within the squad wanting a manager of established reputation.<\/p>\n
Alonso\u2019s credentials include winning the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen and a playing career that brought success at Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. That standing is reflected in the boardroom, where The Times notes positive negotiations have taken place with the coach.<\/p>\n
Those discussions are not concluded. Alonso is understood to be seeking written assurances about the scope of his responsibilities and the level of involvement from the sporting directors and owners above him before making a final decision. While a deal has not yet been agreed, sources say things are moving in the right direction and there is a belief that Alonso will become Chelsea\u2019s next manager.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s recent reputation has suffered under the BlueCo ownership group, whose controversial and expensive approach has fallen short of expectations. The club face the prospect of missing out on Champions League qualification, and a narrative has developed that those upstairs are difficult to work with. That line of argument has prompted suggestions that managers might want to distance themselves from the club, although The Athletic\u2019s David Ornstein gleefully branded those suggestions “nonsense.”<\/p>\n
Interest in the job remains, but Alonso is reported to want clarity on what he can expect from the hierarchy. One specific issue he has highlighted is input into recruitment. Chelsea currently operate a data-driven model led by the leadership team of co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, with recruitment chiefs Joe Shields and Sam Jewell and co-owner Behdad Eghbali playing prominent roles in the process.<\/p>\n
Any appointment will hinge on the outcome of the ongoing talks and the assurances Alonso requires on structure and recruitment influence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Players favour Xabi Alonso and talks are progressing as he seeks recruitment input and assurances…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13826,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1383],"tags":[1505,983,1162],"class_list":["post-13827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-chelsea-news","tag-accountability","tag-agents","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13827","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=13827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}