{"id":10189,"date":"2026-05-18T16:56:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T16:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=10189"},"modified":"2026-05-18T16:56:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T16:56:58","slug":"chelsea-manager-xabi-alonso-reveals-three-focuses-in-98-word-statement-after-signing-four-year-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=10189","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso reveals three &#8216;focuses&#8217; in 98-word statement after signing four-year deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p>Xabi Alonso says it \u2018fills me with immense pride\u2019 to manage Chelsea after signing a four-year deal at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>The Spaniard was sacked by Real Madrid in January after just eight months in charge but remains very highly thought of after leading\u00a0Bayer Leverkusen to a Bundesliga, DFB Polkal double in the 2023\/2024 season.<\/p>\n<p>Heavily tipped to replace Arne Slot at Liverpool, reports have suggested that <strong>Alonso would rather have landed on Merseyside<\/strong>but with <strong>the Dutchman still somehow at the Anfield helm<\/strong> Chelsea\u2019s BlueCo bosses have swooped to secure his signing.<\/p>\n<p>Alonso has agreed a four-year deal and will start work on July 1.<\/p>\n<p>The Chelsea statement read:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u2018His appointment reflects the Club\u2019s belief in his broad set of experiences, coaching quality and game model, leadership attributes, character and integrity, which were key to the decision to ask him to help lead the next phase of Chelsea\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He is regarded not only as an outstanding football coach, but also as a proven leader and partner across a number of areas essential to the demands of driving the team.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2>\u2018Immense pride\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Alonso says his appointment at Chelsea fills him with \u2018immense pride\u2019 as vowed to \u2018build the right culture\u2019 and \u2018fight for trophies\u2019 at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChelsea is one of the biggest clubs in world football and it fills me with immense pride to become manager of this great club,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom my conversations with the ownership group and sporting leadership, it is clear we share the same ambition. We want to build a team capable of competing consistently at the highest level and fighting for trophies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is great talent in the squad and huge potential at this football club and it will be my great honour to lead it. Now the focus is on hard work, building the right culture and winning trophies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1071072250\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><br \/>\n<!-- Article End --><\/div>\n<p><script>\n        !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n        {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n        n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n        if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n        n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n        t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);\n        s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n        'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n        fbq('init', '1399787394855675');\n        fbq('track', 'PageView');\n    <\/script><script>\n        !function(e,n,t){var o=e.getElementsByTagName(n)(0);e.getElementById\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Xabi Alonso says it \u2018fills me with immense pride\u2019 to manage Chelsea after signing a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}