Xabi Alonso
Xabi Alonso and Chelsea had a busy summer(Image: Catherine Ivill - AMA)
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Over his first summer transfer window in charge at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso was given a total of 10 first-team signings to add to his squad.
Alonso was keen to leave his own stamp at Cobham, adding players to hopefully help on the pitch, but also to try and change the culture within the Blues squad. In doing that, Chelsea's transfer strategy changed; as the west Londoners chose to hone in on adding more experience to their ranks.
The likes of Danny Welbeck, 35, and Jordan Henderson, 36, were brought in over the summer and sources have since described the pair as 'culture setters' behind the scenes at Chelsea.
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While the signings of Welbeck and Henderson were largely unprecedented during the owner's Chelsea tenure, there were signs that their trusted model was still in play.
Towards the end of the summer transfer window, Chelsea reached a £40million agreement with Atalanta to sign defender Honest Ahanor but the teenage centre-back will not be joining the Blues officially until the summer of 2027.
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Instead, Ahanor was loaned to Crystal Palace for the season, where it has been a rather slow start this term. Perhaps that was to be expected given the defender is only 18 years old. Ahanor has started one Premier League match this season - incidentally, his only appearance in the competition to date - in the 3-2 home defeat to Ipswich Town on September 12.
Five days later, the Italy international started the Eagles' 4-0 Europa League victory over Lech Poznan at Selhurst Park, but was left out of the squad for the goalless draw away at Leeds United less than 72 hours after.
Chelsea supporters will be hoping the Italian defender will get more minutes as the season goes on and will be keen to keep an eye on him ahead of next summer, where the Blues will face a big decision on whether to add him to Alonso's squad, or send him out on loan again.
Ahanor himself was really emotional when he secured the move to Chelsea in August. That is according to his agent Beppe Riso, who has been speaking about the defender's switch to Stamford Bridge and his incredible rise.
Honest Ahanor
Honest Ahanor will officially join Chelsea in the summer of 2027(Image: Sebastian Frej)
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In an interview with Tuttomercatoweb, Riso said: "A very difficult, long, tough operation. Another top-notch boy, humanly speaking. He brings with him the story of a boy who grew up with nothing."
Riso added: "When he signed for Chelsea, he hugged a friend of his and me and cried."
Ahanor was away with the Italy squad over the international break. Roberto Mancini included the future Chelsea defender in his first squad since returning to the national team as head coach in July.
However, Mancini has not used Ahanor in either of his first two matches as Italy boss. Ahanor was an unused substitute in the Italians' 2-0 defeat to Belgium last week before not even getting in the squad for Monday's win away in Turkey.
Italy have since released a statement confirming Ahanor will join up with the Under-21s squad for the remainder of the international break. This does not seem to be any slight on Ahanor, more to do with helping the youngsters ahead of a crunch match to qualify for the upcoming European Championship.
A statement read: "Honest Ahanor has left the senior national team training camp and will join the Italy Under-21 squad in the next few hours after they returned overnight to the Olympic Preparation Centre in Tirrenia following yesterday's win over Armenia and with Monday's decisive qualifier in Pescara against Poland for a place in the final stage of the European Under-21 Championship.
"The Crystal Palace defender did not travel to Paris yesterday, where Italy face France tonight in their third Nations League group match, and instead stayed behind to train at the Federal Technical Centre in Coverciano with eight other Azzurri."