Updated 17:14, 12 May 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nXabi Alonso has been linked to Chelsea(Image: @nagore.aranburu\/Instagram)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/p>\n
Xabi Alonso has emerged as one of the leading contenders to become Chelsea’s new manager – after the Blues sacked Liam Rosenior.<\/p>\n
Rosenior was Chelsea’s second permanent manager of the season, with Enzo Maresca leading the Blues at the start of the campaign. However, both managers were sacked when their form started to take nose dive. And Alonso has now emerged as the favourite for the role.<\/p>\n
According to talkSPORT, Chelsea have held talks with the ex-Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen. And, if he takes the job, Alonso will be joined by his stunning Nagore Aranburu – but, if things had turned out differently, she could have shacked up wit another football.<\/p>\n
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\nNagore Aranburu is the better half of Xabi Alonso(Image: @nagore.aranburu\/Instagram)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/div>\n
JOIN US ON FB!<\/strong> Get all the best sports news and much more on our Facebook page<\/p>\nFormer Liverpool striker Peter Crouch once revealed the amusing tale of how he boasted to his teammates about a hotel receptionist he fancied, only to discover she was already Alonso’s girlfriend.<\/p>\n
Following his \u00a39.5million transfer to Liverpool from Southampton in the summer of 2005, Crouch was residing at the Hope Street Hotel where a receptionist had captured his attention.<\/p>\n
Yet after informing his teammates about the woman, it was quickly disclosed that she was Spanish midfielder Alonso’s long-term partner. She was employed at the hotel in a bid to enhance her English abilities after Alonso had joined the club a year prior from Real Sociedad.<\/p>\n
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\nPeter Crouch thought he had the receptionist smitten(Image: Dave Benett\/Getty Images for M&S)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/div>\n
Writing his Daily Mail column in 2018, Crouch revealed: “On signing for Liverpool, I stayed at the Hope Street Hotel. On reception was a girl so good-looking I couldn’t quite believe she was smiling at me all the time.”<\/p>\n
“I told the lads in training. ‘Honestly, she’s beautiful. I think I’ve got a shout here,'” the former England international striker recalled. “Jamie Carragher called a few other senior players over. ‘Tell them again, Crouchie.’ So I did. She’s all over me. I’m on fire.'”<\/p>\n
Liverpool legend Carragher, aware of whom Crouch was discussing, proceeded to encourage the then 24-year-old to divulge further details about the woman.<\/p>\n
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\nPeter Crouch would wed Abbey Clancy(Image: INSTAGRAM)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/div>\n
Crouch added: “Carra again, all interest. ‘What does she look like?’<\/p>\n
“‘Amazing. Dark-haired. Spanish-looking. I’m in there.’ It turned out she was Xabi Alonso’s partner. She was doing a bit of work to practice her language skills.”<\/p>\n
Alonso and Aranburu took it in their stride, though, with Carragher capitalising on the young player’s embarrassment, “he was nice about it. So was she. Carra less so.”<\/p>\n
The couple eventually tied the knot in 2009 and have three children together: Jontxu, Ane and Emma. Crouch, meanwhile, would tie the knot with Abbey Clancy.<\/p>\n
Crouch and Alonso shared the pitch 93 times for the Reds during their three-year stint as teammates at Anfield before Crouch made his exit for Portsmouth in 2008.<\/p>\n
The duo clinched the FA Cup in 2006, after Alonso had been part of the Champions League-winning squad in Istanbul the previous year.<\/p>\n
Alonso also bagged the World Cup and two European Championships with Spain before hanging up his boots in 2017, having left Merseyside for Real Madrid in the summer of 2009.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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