18 May 2026 11:54 BST |<\/span> Cameron Smith Accredited sports journalist covering football since 2020 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Xabi Alonso will bring four coaches with him to Chelsea this summer, while interim boss Calum McFarlane will remain in the first-team set up at Stamford Bridge next season.<\/p>\n Alonso, 44, was officially announced as Chelsea\u2019s new permanent manager on Sunday and he will formally start his duties as Blues boss on 1 July.<\/p>\n The Spaniard established himself as one of the most talented young coaches in the world during a hugely successful spell in charge of Bayer Leverkusen, during which time he guided them to their first ever Bundesliga title without losing a match, and his appointment is a major coup for Chelsea.<\/p>\n Alonso spent seven months as Real Madrid boss before his departure in January and The Athletic<\/b> have confirmed that four members of his backroom staff from his time at the Bernabeu – assistants Sebastian Parrilla, Alberto Encinas and Benat Labaien, plus fitness coach Ismael Camenforte Lopez – will follow him to Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n In addition, McFarlane will remain in the first-team as part of Alonso\u2019s coaching staff, while set-piece coach Bernardo Cueva and goalkeeping coach Ben Roberts will also retain their roles with the west London giants.<\/p>\n Furthermore, it reportedly remains a possibility that Alonso further adds to his backroom staff before the start of next season. The Spaniard will also have a greater say in possible transfers this summer, having become the first \u2018manager\u2019 of the BlueCo era at Chelsea.<\/p>\n When asked about Alonso\u2019s appointment during his pre-match press conference ahead of Chelsea\u2019s clash against Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday, McFarlane said: \u201cReally exciting news. Great coach with a massive pedigree. We’re all really looking forward to working with Xabi.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is excited. He’s a great coach, won major trophies, a great playing career. He will have lots of respect from everyone. We’re very excited.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cIt doesn’t surprise me (the appointment), we’re a massive club with some of the best players in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n However, McFarlane remained coy when questioned whether he will form part of Alonso\u2019s backroom staff. \u201cI haven’t thought about that. There’s so much to prepare for,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n McFarlane later added: \u201cHe (Alonso) sent me a text message yesterday, I will keep that private, but mainly about the final.\u201d<\/p>\n Build The FIFA World Cup 2026\u2122: LEGO\u00a9 releases stunning football-inspired collection<\/b><\/p>\n Xabi Alonso is Chelsea\u2019s new manager \u2013 and his job title matters<\/b><\/p>\n Transfer Rumours: Mourinho eyes Man City star as first Real Madrid signing<\/b><\/p>\n Check out FootballTransfers’ new app for all of football’s big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.<\/p>\n The FootballTransfers app is available on Google Play and in the Apple App Store. Download here:<\/p>\n \u2022Google Play<\/b><\/p>\n \u2022App Store<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 18 May 2026 11:54 BST | 4 min read \u00a9 IMAGO Cameron Smith | Digital…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10692","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\/10692","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=10692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Calum McFarlane delivers official response to Xabi Alonso\u2019s appointment as Cjelsea manager<\/h2>\n
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