{"id":17517,"date":"2026-07-15T07:49:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T07:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=17517"},"modified":"2026-07-15T07:49:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T07:49:18","slug":"xabi-alonso-makes-captaincy-decision-on-reece-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=17517","title":{"rendered":"Xabi Alonso makes captaincy decision on Reece James"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/NewsArticle\">\n<!-- google_ad_section_start --><\/p>\n<h6>News<span> \u00bb <\/span>Premier League news<span> \u00bb <\/span>Chelsea news<\/h6>\n<p class=\"articletimestamp\">July 14, 2026 21:31 GMT (UK), by <!-- Author Start -->Sri Aswin<!-- Author End -->\n<\/p>\n<h6>View Chelsea summer 2026 transfer targets<\/h6>\n<div style=\"float:right\">\n<figure>\n<p class=\"article_image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eyefootball.com\/imghold\/largestXabiAlonso_2026.jpg\" title=\"Xabi Alonso news\" alt=\"Xabi Alonso news\" itemprop=\"image\"\/><\/p><figcaption><em itemprop=\"articleSection\">James captaincy decision made<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><span itemprop=\"articleBody\"><br \/>\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-size:16px\">\n<strong>Chelsea manager <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Xabi Alonso<\/span><\/span>  will continue with <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Reece James<\/span><\/span>  as the Blues&#8217; captain next season, according to The Daily Mail.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><!-- responsive_ad --><\/p>\n<p>The England international has been the Blues&#8217; leader over the past few years, but his position has come under scrutiny due to his injury woes.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, Alonso is prepared to keep the faith in the talented right-back and won&#8217;t contemplate a change ahead of the new league season.<\/p>\n<p>James played in midfield and at right-back last term, but he could operate from a different position under the new Blues head coach.<\/p>\n<p>Alonso has generally operated with a three-man backline. James could be asked to play as the right centre-back or as a right wing-back.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea will travel to Asia for a pre-season tour. <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Nicolas Jackson<\/span><\/span>  is among those who could be involved despite speculation over his future.<\/p>\n<p>The striker could be handed a second chance by the new manager. His future could be decided based on his pre-season performances.<br \/><!-- Article End --><\/p>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p>  <!-- newadv --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {\nvar js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)(0);\nif (d.getElementById(id)) return;\njs = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\njs.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\nfjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News \u00bb Premier League news \u00bb Chelsea news July 14, 2026 21:31 GMT (UK), by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17517","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\/17517","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=17517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}