Why Xabi Alonso chose to become Chelsea manager | ‘’Alonso will have a big say''

We start with big news coming out of Chelsea this evening.Just hours after suffering defeat to the hands of Manchester City in the FA Cup final, Chelsea have moved a step closer to appointing Xabi Alonso as their new manager with a deal now agreed.Our Chief Correspondent Carvey Solicor has joined us here in the studio.Quite simply Carvey, why Xabi Alonso?

Well, he's the number one target that Chelsea have decided is the right man to take over full time.Now, interesting backstory to this because we were actually told a week ago that Chelsea had agreed a deal for Xabi Alonso to become their new manager.We obviously put some calls into the club and we were told, hey, Hold on a second.It's not that advanced.There's still a process going on.There's still other targets we're looking at.

So either Chelsea were being a little bit economical with the truth, and they didn't want the news coming out before the FA Cup final today, or actually, it wasn't as advanced as we'd been led to believe last week, and they were still trying to tie up a deal.Now we know.Now we know the FA Cup is out of the way.Xabi Alonso is going to be the next Chelsea manager.If you look at all the CVs of the candidates, you could make a pretty good argument that he has the best CV.If I was a Chelsea fan, the only thing I'd be a little bit worried about is the fact that he doesn't have experience of managing in the Premier League.

But of course, if you look at his CV, winning the double at Bayer Leverkusen, invincible season, and also everything that he achieved as a player, I think that is why Chelsea have decided to go for him rather than some of the other candidates, because there are a lot of good managers available this summer.

And that former Leverkusen obviously attracted Real Madrid, where he didn't last, obviously.But in any case, that big name reputation must count for something.But when it comes to Chelsea, not that many managers have ultimate control.Will he have it?

Well, he's not going to have total control.You know, if you are the manager of Chelsea or the head coach, let's wait and see what he's going to be called.You have to fit into the structure that they have in place.But I think he will have a little bit more of a say than, for instance, somebody like Liam Rossinia or maybe even Enzo Maresca.Don't forget Enzo Maresca was doing a pretty good job in his first full season.Chelsea won two titles.

They won the Club World Cup.But then I think the relationship began to deteriorate behind the scenes.There was contact from Manchester City about potentially taking over from Pep Guardiola when and if he decides to leave City.So it derailed their relationship.But I think Enzo Maresca was unhappy behind the scenes.He wanted more control, the kind of control that traditionally managers have had.

But you're not going to get that.So you make a Very good point.In your question, is there going to be some tension going forward?Is Xabi Alonso the kind of character who grew up playing under traditional managers, who wants the kind of control that traditional managers have?And will there potentially be some trouble further on down the road?You know, I don't want to sort of predict that they're going to be problems in the future.

I'm sure that setting out on this journey together, they will have worked out exactly what the parameters are going to be and who's going to be in charge of what.But I think he will definitely have a little bit more of a say, for instance, when it comes to transfers.But by and large, I think he will be the person who will be in charge.

Okay, well let's just talk a little bit about that.In terms of transfers, we know that Chelsea have had a certain strategy in terms of how they've signed players thus far, especially given the age of the squad.Do you think that will change, given that now we have Xabi Alonso earmarked as the next man on charge?

I think it was going to change anyway.I think Chelsea have realised that they need a little bit of a tweak to their strategy when it comes to how they do business in transfer markets.I think they've recognised they need a bit more experience.They want to sign two or three ready -made players this window.They recognise they need a little bit more experience in their squad.I think they've had that with Levi Colwell coming back in.

They need more players.players with leadership qualities, more personality, character, who can sort things out when things are going wrong on the pitch.Also, who can lead when it comes to game management.So I think that is the kind of player they'll be looking for this summer.And certainly, Xabi Alonso will have a say in who they sign.He'll have a very, very big say.

But they're not just going to say, Xabi, you're in charge now.You're in charge of buying and selling players.You can do what you want.No, he has to fit into the structure that is already there at the club.What do you think his main priorities are going to be?I mean, look, he needs to sort Chelsea out because, make no mistake, Chelsea have had a terrible season by Chelsea standards.

There's a very good chance they're going to finish in the bottom half of the table.This season was all about trying to Funny enough, not being in Europe, potentially, not winning the FA Cup today means that route to the Europa League is closed.We know they're not going to be in the Champions League, probably not the Europa League, maybe Conference League if they finish eighth.Maybe he can do without a headache of Europe at all.Similar to what Michael Carrick is doing at Manchester United.So he can just focus on the domestic form.

I think Chelsea have some very, very good world leaders.players.They proved that, but consistently over a league campaign, they haven't been able to get it right.And a lot of people will say that is because the players, the squad is lacking experience, lacking leadership.That is something that they'll get with Xabi Alonso and hopefully something that they will address during this summer's transfer window.For what it's worth, I still think it's a little bit of a risk going for Xabi Alonso.

You know, it's easy to stand here and say, what a great appointment, incredible CV, incredible player, what a coup for Chelsea.But let's not forget, every managerial appointment has an element of risk to it.And I think the element of risk with Xabi Alonso is, one, his lack of Premier League experience, and two, the fact that he's also very, very closely associated with Liverpool.although he did play for Real Madrid and Bayern Munich as well.

I'll come to the point in a second.I mean, I think it's a really good point that you mentioned about the sort of impact of lack of European football and what Carrick is doing as Manchester United.You know, maybe he's had a helping hand with not having any distractions in European competition.It's actually happened with Chelsea before.I remember they finished, I think, 10th one season.Next season, in comes Antonio Conte and they win the Premier League title.

So they have previous experience of this.Maybe eighth place and Conference League is a distraction.particularly one we'll see.On Liverpool then, because obviously as you mentioned, one of the most loved players of that era at Liverpool early this century.So how much were they in the picture?Did they have a stronger hand to play maybe previously than they do right now?

Well I don't think they've been in the picture at all.They've decided they're going to stick with Arne Slott.He said it himself at his news conference on Thursday.He has every reason to believe that he's still going to be the Liverpool manager next season.I think, look, if you have read or listened to what Gerry Alonso had said in the past, I think one day in the future he would like to be the Liverpool manager.If he was panning out his sort of ideal career path, it would involve managing Liverpool one day, but the Liverpool job is not available at the moment, and Liverpool have not made a move for him.

They've known for a while that he's available.Potentially, if they had decided that they wanted to change direction, they could have contacted him, made an official request, approach but that has not happened.I know a lot of Liverpool fans would love him back but he can't pick up the phone and beg Liverpool to come in for him.He can only accept the jobs that are offered to him and he knows that Chelsea really, really want him and that's why he's agreed to become the new Chelsea manager.

How do you think Chelsea fans are looking at this?this weekend.

given the prospect of getting Xabi and Lonzo and it's never going to happen.We're going to have to settle for, you know, the third, fourth choice.They're obviously very unhappy, a lot of Chelsea fans, with the way the club's being run, with the ownership structure at the club.So I think if this works out, it will be great news for the Chelsea owners as well, because it will quieten down, you know, the sort of feelings amongst the fan base about what's been going wrong at the club.Having said that, The issues that the fan base have are not going to go away.Just because you get a new manager in and you maybe win a few games or win a few trophies, it's not certain that those concerns are going to go away because I think those concerns are deep rooted.

Interesting as well, the timing.We're standing here on a very, very busy day when Celtic have won the season.title, Manchester City have won the FA Cup.There's a lot going on.Yet our top story is a good news story about Chelsea.

Is it a slight raised eyebrow?

I think from a PR and communications point of view, instead of me and you standing here talking about what's gone wrong at Chelsea, they lost the FA Cup final.What about the referee?The Chelsea fans are protesting against the owners.On paper, everything looks great.Liverpool signing Isak look great.Liverpool signing Wirtz look great.

There have been lots of things that look great on paper, but let's just wait and see how this pans out.But well done to Chelsea.Most fans, Chelsea fans, would say, this is the guy we wanted and the owners have gone out and delivered.Yeah.

All right, Kaveh.Thank you very much indeed for the moment.Kaveh Salihko, our chief correspondent there.