Xabi Alonso has taken his first training session since starting work as Chelsea’s new manager.<\/p>\n
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After fulfilling media duties and taking another tour of the club’s facilities, the Spaniard got his new era underway on the Cobham training pitch.<\/p>\n
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Friday morning saw Alonso lead an outdoor training session that included a large contingent of Chelsea players; some from the first team and others from the youth academy.<\/p>\n
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Xabi Alonso takes first Chelsea training session<\/h2>\n
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The work the 44-year-old did at Bayer Leverkusen, which saw the Germans go unbeaten en route to their first-ever Bundesliga title in 2023-24, has seen him earn a huge reputation of being one of Europe’s most hands on and demanding coaches. <\/p>\n
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And according to BBC Sport, he has brought that same approach to Chelsea. The former Real Madrid and Liverpool midfielder’s first training session saw the squad told to report at 9 a.m. for an extended session that saw their new boss focus on ball work and fitness.<\/p>\n
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Although Alonso was without several key players due to their participation in this summer’s World Cup in North America, the Spaniard still oversaw a lot of talent, including Cole Palmer, who was controversially left out of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad.<\/p>\n
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Several Chelsea stars took part<\/h2>\n
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Along with Palmer, Joao Pedro and Levi Colwill were also involved as were new signings and recent arrivals Geovany Quenda, Emmanuel Emegha and Dastan Satpaev.<\/p>\n
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The other outfield players spotted taking part in Alonso’s first session included: Aaron Anselmino, Wesley Fofana, Dario Essugo, Jamie Gittens, Liam Delap, Josh Acheampong, Estevao Willian and Romeo Lavia.<\/p>\n
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Robert Sanchez, Filip Jorgensen, Gabriel Slonina and Teddy Sharman-Lowe were all present for specialist goalkeeper training.<\/p>\n
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And interestingly, Alonso also opted to include several youth academy players in his session. Reggie Walsh (midfielder), Mahdi Nichol-Jazuli (midfielder), Landon Emenalo (midfielder), Ryan Kavuma-McQueen (forward) and Calvin Diakite (defender) all took part.<\/p>\n
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At Cobham until pre-season<\/h2>\n
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The Chelsea squad will continue to train at their Cobham facility until they jet off for their pre-season tour of Australia and Asia on 25 July.<\/p>\n
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The Blues’ first pre-season game will be against Western Sydney Wanderers on 28 July before facing Spurs, Juventus, AC Milan and Johor Darul Ta’zim.<\/p>\n
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Alonso will hope to implement as much of his philosophy and style of play as possible before the start of the 2026-27 Premier League which sees Chelsea kick off their campaign away to Fulham on 24 August.<\/p>\n
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