Xabi Alonso has wasted no time in getting up to speed with his new surroundings, paying a visit to Chelsea’s Cobham training base in Surrey earlier this week with members of his backroom staff. The 44-year-old Spaniard, who officially begins as Blues manager on July 1 having penned a deal until 2030, used the trip to meet Chelsea staff and get a feel for the facilities ahead of his official tenure.
The Blues made a big deal of appointing Alonso and pointed to the Spaniard’s extensive coaching pedigree, style of play, leadership qualities, and integrity as key reasons he was handed the job. The Blues hope the Spaniard can provide long-awaited stability to a club that has gone through a succession of managers under the BlueCo ownership era.
Three times in the past four years, Chelsea have failed to qualify for the Champions League, and that is widely expected to be Alonso’s most urgent mandate to address. The new manager is not coming on his own. Three assistants and a fitness coach who worked with him at Real Madrid will also join him at Stamford Bridge.
They are Sebastian Parrilla, Alberto Encinas and Beñat Labaien, plus fitness coach Ismael Camenforte Lopez. Crucially, Alonso has chosen to blend his well-tested Spanish lieutenants with a few familiar faces from Chelsea, knowing he needs people in place who understand the club’s culture and dynamics from day one.
Alonso arrives with a reputation as one of Europe’s brightest young coaches, most notably guiding Bayer Leverkusen to a historic unbeaten Bundesliga title in 2024 – a feat that announced him to the world as a coach of the very highest order. However, his second spell at Real Madrid lasted just a few months before leaving by mutual consent in January 2026, free to move on to his next chapter.
In his first public remarks as Chelsea manager, Alonso recognised the talent within the squad and vowed to focus on building the right culture and winning trophies.
Calum McFarlane to Remain With Alonso
It seems an easy handover from interim stewardship to the full Alonso era, with Calum McFarlane likely to stay on in a coaching capacity at Stamford Bridge. They knew they wanted to give Alonso a greater degree of authority than some of his predecessors, with the Spaniard holding the title of manager rather than head coach, a deliberate break from the travails experienced under Graham Potter, Mauricio Pochettino, Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior.
McFarlane understands the players and the inner workings of the club, making him a valuable link between eras. He has won a lot of respect from the dressing room from two interim spells in charge this season and was a natural carry-over into the new regime. The Scotsman may have been coy about his own future, but he did reveal that Alonso had already been in touch by text message in the immediate aftermath of the FA Cup final defeat.