Xabi Alonso used his first club interview to set a clear agenda for a Chelsea side that has fallen from the heights of recent seasons. He acknowledged the contrast between the club\u2019s trophy-laden history and its current position, and framed his remit in terms of standards, daily work and an urgent push to be competitive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big honor,\u201d he said of his new post. \u201cTo be part of this great club that is one of the best in the world, with great success in the last decades. It\u2019s a big privilege to be a part of and now it\u2019s looking forward to the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have challenges, nice challenges, ahead of us, but this is the beauty of the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alonso pointed to the recent decline \u2014 after last season\u2019s Club World Cup victory over Paris Saint-Germain and the expectation of a title challenge, Chelsea have slid into a crisis with no Champions League football and a fanbase impatient for progress. He made clear his intention to combine respect for what has worked previously with immediate corrective work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what excites me,\u201d he stressed, \u201cthis challenge, this chance to prove that we can do great things, that we can create a solid base to be as competitive as soon as possible. We want to start good in the first years and the first games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way they have, not so long ago, competed on the highest level, gave me assurance that the potential of the team was there, because of the quality of the players, because of the quality of the way they have played. So now, it will be the work to carry on many of the things that they\u2019ve done and to know that we come in a very competitive level, the Premier League , but that\u2019s the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure that, with the commitment of everyone, with, for sure, hard work\u2014that\u2019s a must\u2014and with the quality on the decisions that we have to take, we will be there to enjoy a good season.\u201d<\/p>\n
On discipline and daily standards he was direct: \u201cThere are football principles that are unnegotiatable,\u201d he stressed. \u201cIn football, you need to be willing to pay all the price to compete on the highest level, so you can\u2019t hold back anything. You need to give everything you have for the benefit of the team. And the team is always the most important thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to create that culture, which is the process, and the process is on a daily basis here at Cobham, training every day to prepare for when we have to perform in front of our fans. But on the daily basis, we need to be the best and we need to know that the team is the most important.\u201d<\/p>\n
When hired in May, Alonso was unveiled as Chelsea\u2019s new \u201cmanager,\u201d rather than \u201chead coach.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alonso: restores standards at Cobham, demand daily effort, rebuild culture and aims to compete fast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1383],"tags":[1505,1081],"class_list":["post-16897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-chelsea-news","tag-accountability","tag-adaptation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16897","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=16897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}