Xabi Alonso tipped to reject Chelsea offer by journalist

There has been a lot of positivity around the Xabi Alonso to Chelsea situation over the last few days. Some reports have even suggested that the Spaniard has already been loosely interviewed and has impressed people with his ideas. Also, Arne Slot sounds convinced that he will remain Liverpool manager next season. All of that combined, optimism is growing among the club’s supporters that a deal is possible.

Of course, not everybody is as convinced. Just Chelsea’s recent record with managers is enough to raise some doubts about any move for Alonso. Mauricio Pochettino admitted that he decided to part ways with the club after a season at Stamford Bridge. Enzo Maresca is believed to have walked away as well. Can any top manager work under the BlueCo model?

Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio does not appear to believe that Alonso will accept any offer from Chelsea. According to Football 365, he said:

“I really don’t think that Xabi Alonso can or will accept an offer from Chelsea, because he knows what happened to Enzo Maresca when he was the manager.

“He knows that the board wants to have influence on the decisions, which normally is up to the manager.

“They want to decide which players should be substituted during a match and all that stuff, which Alonso can’t accept at all.”

BlueCo need to change their ways to convince top managers like Xabi Alonso

There have been claims in the past that the Chelsea board like to have a say on things that would normally be down to the manager’s desires.

That being said, I do not believe that the Alonso rumours would have come this far if BlueCo did not have some sort of confidence that they could get a deal done. In the past, we have seen rumours quickly sound down by the media. The Antoine Semenyo saga is a great example of that. The speculation did not even last 24 hours.

So, there has to be something going behind the scenes. But at the end of the day, whether it is Alonso or somebody else, BlueCo need to realise that any top manager will want to have more of a say than they have offered previous managers. They need to be willing to make those changes to their model.

If Alonso does reject Chelsea, who would be the alternative?

Of course, let’s not rule out the possibility of Alonso rejecting Chelsea. If that does happen, who would be the alternative? The easy answer is Andoni Iraola. Even Di Marzio seems to be of that same belief. He said:

“I think Iraola has a good chance of becoming the new Chelsea manager, but they will have to fix some of the internal problems at the club.

“I think Xabi Alonso is waiting for another offer, but of course, Chelsea will try, but he won’t accept it.”

Now, are Di Marzio’s comments based on some inside information or just his opinion? Judging from his comments, it feels more of the latter. Guess we will find out soon with the end of the season not far away.

Sourav Mahanty has covered teams like Chelsea, Celtic, Real Madrid, Manchester United, PSG and more over a career that has now lasted a decade.

His work has been featured on Sports Illustrated, Athlon Sports, SB Nation, FanSided, The Sportster and aggregated through Bleacher Report and NewsNow.

Outside of football, he is also interested in basketball, cricket and professional wrestling.

View all articles →