The Spaniard's appointment comes at a pivotal moment for Chelsea, who finished tenth in the Premier League last season. He took his first training session earlier this month, having officially started the role on 1 July, and has already begun shaping his squad following Marc Cucurella's departure for Real Madrid.
Asked what excited him most about the role, Alonso said: "Well, first of all, good afternoon everyone. Thank you for congratulating me. The excitement is the club, the squad, the chance, the opportunity and the honour to come to this great club and to create the excitement, this bond with the supporters and to win games and to be successful."
He was equally candid on the scale of the job ahead.
"I want to enjoy it. I want to be part of this club, work together with the sports directors, with the players, with the staff around. I see that it's a club with great potential. We need for sure to make important decisions, right decisions, but I think that we have a strong base already built and now we need to follow up to keep building and building this mentality to be competitive on the pitch, to win games and to enjoy it."
Pushed on whether Chelsea must secure European football next season, Alonso stopped short of making guarantees.
> "Well, for sure that's a goal, 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 see ourselves and how we want to approach the game, wherever we go, that's my job. For sure we want to be there and time will tell, but we are ambitious to be in Chelsea, we need to share that energy, that ambition and as well that hunger to want to have success."
One of the biggest talking points of the briefing centred on Enzo Fernandez, whose long-term future has been the subject of speculation. Alonso confirmed the pair had already discussed the midfielder's role under him, though he declined to share details.
"Yes, we have spoken but as you can understand what we have spoken remains private," he said, before confirming directly that he wants Fernandez to stay: "Yes."
Alonso also gave his first assessment of Cole Palmer, who he has worked with on the training pitch for a matter of days.
"Yes, we have had a few training sessions already and from the first day you can see he is a special talent, he is a special player, it is not easy to have one of those and you can notice his quality. How he is able to play the right decision in the right spot, so I am happy that he has come in a good mood, in a good mindset to have a great season and we are really looking forward to get the best from him. If we are able to build a strong team with the proper stability to find the key players, for sure Cole is going to be one of those key players in the attacking part."
On Alejandro Garnacho, who was absent from his first training session, Alonso confirmed there is interest from elsewhere.
"Well the situation, we have spoken with the sports directors and there is an interest from him, from other clubs, so let's see how it develops. But hopefully it finishes in the best possible way for all the parties."
Nicolas Jackson, back from a loan spell at Bayern Munich, has been included in Chelsea's pre-season tour party.
"He is joining in the tour that we are starting in Asia and I am looking forward to start with Nico at that time," Alonso confirmed.
On the question of silverware, Alonso refused to be drawn on a timeline: "I am not going to say what will happen in May, for me it is too early to say that. But I am confident, I am optimistic to think that we can have a great season."