Xabi Alonso has loads to do when he walks through the door at Stamford Bridge in little over a month and one of the biggest things is changing the culture within the club
Xabi Alonso has a bucket load of work to do when he gets in the door as Chelsea manager in just over a month.
The 44-year-old Spaniard will officially begin his four-year contract on July 1, becoming the permanent successor to Liam Rosenior, who was relieved of his duties less than four months into his long-term deal at Stamford Bridge.
After Rosenior departed, the club released an honest statement with BlueCo acknowledging the mistakes that were made over the course of an extremely disappointing 2025/26 campaign. Chelsea’s five-strong team of sporting directors underwent what they described as a “period of self-reflection” in the process to replace Rosenior.
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They were not rushed and did their due diligence in the hunt for a new head coach. Or so we thought, because BlueCo ended up appointing Alonso as their new manager. They scrapped the ‘head coach’ tag that they had used throughout their Stamford Bridge tenure to allow Alonso more freedom and power to work within his role.
Alonso will work collaboratively with the club’s sporting directors in the upcoming summer transfer window with Chelsea set to be extremely busy. Sources say the Blues want to sign multiple ‘ready-made’ players over the coming months in what will, the club hope, be a cultural reset.
And, wow, is that needed. Chelsea finished the season with Wesley Fofana being shown a red card at Sunderland. It was the second time the French defender was sent off during the campaign and, staggeringly, it was the squad’s 11th red card of the season (including Enzo Maresca’s in October).
Chelsea showed their immaturity far too often throughout the course of the season and it let them down on countless occasions. The Blues want to sign players that can deal with adversity better; instead of letting their frustration boil over and suffering the consequences.
Arsenal, the newly-crowned Premier League champions, finished the season with zero red cards. Zilch. Nada. The Gunners were criticised a lot for their style of football throughout the campaign but their disciplinary record has been faultless. – having had SIX players sent off the previous year. An excellent turnaround that helped them become champions.
Of course, people have shared conspiracy theories on the internet – what’s new? – that the PGMOL were behind Arsenal but that’s quite frankly ridiculous. Arsenal fans won’t care – some are still hungover from Sunday evening.
As much as you can argue if Chelsea should be following Arsenal’s model when it comes to their style of football, because there are question marks over how sustainable their approach is, one thing the Blues should look to emulate is how to keep their comments, hands and feet to themselves.
The aforementioned Fofana’s future should be under review. Not only did he not perform well in the 2025/26 season (he wasn’t the only one, to be fair to him) but being sent off twice – both in pivotal moments – is borderline unforgivable. Especially when you haven’t got the cushion of consistently performing to the required level to fall back on.
A culture reset is desperately needed at Stamford Bridge. Sources said, back when Alonso’s appointment was confirmed, that the Spaniard will work in tandem with the sporting directors in several areas and there is an alignment when it comes to squad planning, performance and culture. A huge summer looms.
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