Photo by Steve Christo - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
Photo by Steve Christo - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
It is early days, but Xabi Alonso seems quite happy at Chelsea after becoming the club’s first-team manager.
He is smiling in press conferences, and there have not been any complaints about transfers so far. However, Alonso did admit he had some concerns before taking over.
“I had a view of Chelsea from the outside,” the Spaniard recently told BBC Sport and other outlets. “I could see the positives and my concerns, so I addressed them.”
What were those concerns? The Chelsea Chronicle has listed a potential few.
Sporting structure
Too many cooks in the kitchen. That is the idiom that comes to mind when you look at Chelsea’s sporting structure.
It has been briefed that they all have different responsibilities, but from the outside, it looks like Chelsea have five sporting directors who are making decisions on transfers.
If Alonso had concerns about transfers and how much of a say he would have in them, that would have been very understandable.
Xabi Alonso graphic
Credit: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty
Unbalanced squad
Any manager who was eyeing the Chelsea job would have had concerns about the squad itself. It certainly possesses talent, thanks to the likes of Cole Palmer, Joao Pedro and Moises Caicedo.
However, it is such a young team, and that fact was really exposed last season as you watched their lack of discipline on the pitch and their bad habit of surrendering leads.
That is starting to be addressed, with Chelsea recently signing Danny Welbeck from Brighton & Hove Albion to add more experience to the roster. Jordan Henderson, 36, has also joined the club.
Job security
Since Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali bought Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter and Liam Rosenior have all been sacked.
Enzo Maresca and Mauricio Pochettino both walked, so job security at Stamford Bridge is clearly an issue.
Rosenior’s reputation has been absolutely destroyed after initially being seen as a young and promising coach. That is another thing that Alonso would also have been thinking about before signing on the dotted line.
He is here now, though, so most of his concerns have clearly been addressed.