Xabi Alonso has agreed to take over at Chelsea and will face off against compatriot Mikel Arteta in the Premier League next season
Former Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso will do battle with compatriot Mikel Arteta in next season’s Premier League after agreeing to take over at Chelsea. Granit Xhaka is in the rare position of having played under both bosses and has already spoken about the differences between the pair.
Xhaka was part of Arteta’s FA Cup winning squad in 2020, playing the full 90 minutes of a victory over Chelsea at Wembley. He spent seven years in north London before joining Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen in 2023 and won a domestic double in Germany at the first time of asking.
Arteta and Alonso were both at early stages of their respective coaching careers when they worked with the Swiss midfielder. Even with that context, though, there was a visible difference between the two which was most visible in Alonso’s willingness to be more flexible with his formations.
“Mikel has his philosophy and that’s it,” Xhaka told the PFA in 2024. “You know this always change the sides, the free man, let him jump for example.”
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He continued: “Even to play always with a back four and never change to a back five for example, or never change like a 4-4-2 with two proper strikers. So you had this 4-3-3, with one six and two eights.
“Xabi is a little bit different. I think that Xabi can play a back four, but he can play as well a back five… What he wants is always two number sixes, not running everywhere or more of the time be in the position.
“But I think that if you are a coach you need your own philosophy, your own tactical, your own ideas. Of course you can always change one or two [things] but you can’t change so many things about it you know?”
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The Chelsea job will be Alonso’s first in English football and first since he left Real Madrid just a few months into his three-year contract at the Bernabeu. He has signed a four-year deal with Chelsea, who had interim boss Calum McFarlane in the dugout for their FA Cup final defeat after dismissing Liam Rosenior in April.
“Chelsea is one of the biggest clubs in world football and it fills me with immense pride to become manager of this great club,” the new Blues manager said after his arrival was confirmed. The 44-year-old has signed a four-year contract at Stamford Bridge and will take over on July 1.
“From my conversations with the ownership group and sporting leadership, it is clear we share the same ambition,” Alonso continued. “We want to build a team capable of competing consistently at the highest level and fighting for trophies.
‘”There is great talent in the squad and huge potential at this football club and it will be my great honour to lead it. Now the focus is on hard work, building the right culture and winning trophies.”
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