{"id":10865,"date":"2026-05-19T20:05:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=10865"},"modified":"2026-05-19T20:05:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:05:54","slug":"xabi-alonso-set-to-secure-first-signing-as-chelsea-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=10865","title":{"rendered":"Xabi Alonso Set To Secure &#8216;First&#8217; Signing As Chelsea Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><em>This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Strasbourg utility player Valentin Barco will be the \u201cfirst reinforcement\u201d of the Xabi Alonso era at Chelsea, according to reports in South America.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>She was a VIP<\/em> claim that the Argentinian international\u2019s move to Stamford Bridge will be made \u201cofficial\u201d over the \u201ccoming days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barco\u2019s transfer to the Blues was <strong>first touted by<em> BBC<\/em> reporter Guillem Balague <\/strong>all the way back in March.<\/p>\n<p>Due to Strasbourg being a Blueco-owned club, negotiations were always going to be pretty straightforward.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sra_unit\"><link rel=\"stylesheet\" id=\"block-sra\" href=\"https:\/\/chelseanews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/snack-related-articles\/dist\/css\/snack-related.min.css?230424-120159\" type=\"text\/css\" media=\"all\"\/>\n<aside class=\"sra-group sra-related-list\">\n<h2 class=\"sra-group-head\">Most Read on Chelsea News<\/h2>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Barco has effectively confirmed the transfer himself<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1076181256\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><br \/>At the time of writing, Chelsea have not officially announced the arrival of the 21-year-old, but writing on Instagram (via the <em>BBC<\/em>), the player made it clear he is leaving Strasbourg:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday I say goodbye to this club. I always gave everything on the pitch in every game for this shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to thank my team-mates, who made everything easier for me; Liam Rosenior and his staff for the confidence they showed in me and for helping shape me as a player; Gary O\u2019Neil and his staff for understanding me and helping me improve; everyone at the club who supports us every day; and the fans for the love they always gave me. Thank you, Strasbourg.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Get a family tour of Stamford Bridge at Buy Me A Gift here<\/p>\n<h2>Where will he play at Chelsea?<\/h2>\n<p>The Argentinian started his career at Boca Juniors as a left-back, having also made several appearances on the wing. However, after making the move to Europe, he struggled to make an impact.<\/p>\n<p>Barco initially joined Brighton before being loaned out to Sevilla. After failing to impress with the La Liga club, he moved to Strasbourg (initially on loan) before making the switch on a permanent basis last summer.<\/p>\n<p>The Argentine has thrived as a central midfielder in France, but it remains to be seen where Alonso would choose to deploy him. If he uses a back three system, there is a good chance that Barco would be selected as a left wing-back.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more about the Chelsea First Team Squad for 2025\/26 here<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10865","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\/10865","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=10865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}