Despite the looming departures, Alonso is focused on a total cultural reset at the club. Having signed a four-year contract, the Spaniard is tasked with returning Chelsea to the Champions League and restoring the standards expected of a perennial trophy contender. He has emphasised that the hard work begins immediately to erase the memories of a dire 2025-26 season.
“We are starting from zero,” the manager explained. “For sure, that’s a goal (returning to Europe). But to reach that goal, you need to do many right things and to be part of that process: how we want to play, how we want to to see ourselves, and how we want to approach a game wherever we go. That’s my job. For sure we want to be there, and time will tell. But we are ambitious, and we just need to show us that energy, that ambition, and as well that hunger to want to have success.”