{"id":8982,"date":"2026-05-16T03:51:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T03:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=8982"},"modified":"2026-05-16T03:51:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T03:51:52","slug":"alonso-wont-accept-chelsea-post-as-alternative-is-given-good-chance-of-securing-managers-job-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=8982","title":{"rendered":"Alonso &#8220;Won&#8217;t Accept&#8221; Chelsea Post As Alternative Is Given &#8220;Good Chance&#8221; Of Securing Manager&#8217;s Job Instead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<article>\n<p><strong>Xabi Alonso is unlikely to be the next Chelsea head coach, according to<em> Sky Sport Italia<\/em> reporter Gianluca Di Marzio.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <em>AceOdds.com<\/em>Di Marzio said the former Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid boss \u201cwon\u2019t accept\u201d an offer from the Blues, and he believes Bournemouth\u2019s Andoni Iraola is a much more likely candidate:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Iraola has a good chance of becoming the new Chelsea manager, but they will have to fix some of the internal problems at the club. I think Xabi Alonso is waiting for another offer, but of course, Chelsea will try, but he won\u2019t accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen whether Di Marzio is simply voicing his opinion or has some insider knowledge.<\/p>\n<h2>Why would Alonso reject Chelsea?<\/h2>\n<p>There are a couple of factors in play. Some journalists think that the 44-year-old is waiting for the Liverpool job to become available, but there is no indication that the Reds are looking to sack Arne Slot.<\/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<p>Another potential reason cited as to why <strong>Alonso<\/strong> could turn down the opportunity is that he won\u2019t get the guarantees he is looking for over certain aspects of the job, including recruitment.<\/p>\n<h2>Who is the favourite to become the next Chelsea head coach?<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1077232843\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><br \/>Alonso remains odds-on to take the position at the bookmakers, despite Di Marzio\u2019s comments, with Iraola second in the running (priced between 9\/2 and 5\/1).<\/p>\n<p>Other candidates are very much rank outsiders at the moment. Ex-Flamengo coach Filipe Luis has odds between 7\/1 and 10\/1, while Fulham\u2019s Marco Silva (between 9\/1 and 12\/1), Crystal Palace\u2019s Oliver Glasner (12\/1) and Como\u2019s Cesc Fabregas (between 16\/1 and 20\/1) are not particularly fancied.<\/p>\n<p>A lot will hinge on how talks progress with Alonso. Most seem to believe that he is the club\u2019s no.1 option, but that could change over the coming days.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more about the Chelsea First Team Squad for 2025\/26 here<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/article><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Xabi Alonso is unlikely to be the next Chelsea head coach, according to Sky Sport&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8982","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\/8982","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=8982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}