{"id":9693,"date":"2026-05-17T12:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=9693"},"modified":"2026-05-17T12:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:42:21","slug":"xabi-alonso-agrees-to-become-chelsea-manager-on-four-year-deal-after-london-talks-announcement-imminent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=9693","title":{"rendered":"Xabi Alonso agrees to become Chelsea manager on four-year deal after London talks, announcement imminent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-blocks\">\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\"><b>Chelsea have reached an agreement with Xabi Alonso to become the club&#8217;s new head coach.<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Alonso has accepted a proposal from Chelsea over a four-year contract, following talks in London with the Premier League side this week.<\/div>\n<p>The 44-year-old will replace Liam Rosenior, who was sacked in April after only three months in charge. Alonso has been without a club since leaving Real Madrid in January, following a short-lived spell in the Spanish capital.<\/p>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">The former Liverpool midfielder previously led Bayer Leverkusen to their first-ever German title in 2023\/24, completing the Bundesliga campaign without defeat.<\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">The Athletic are reporting that an announcement over Alonso&#8217;s appointment is imminent, with the Spaniard&#8217;s contract currently being finalised. He had been Chelsea&#8217;s priority target, despite links to Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola and Como coach Cesc Fabregas.<\/div>\n<p>Calum McFarlane is currently in interim charge of Chelsea and led the Blues during Saturday&#8217;s FA Cup final defeat to Manchester City at Wembley. The West Londoners lost 1-0 with Antoine Semenyo scoring the decisive goal.<\/p>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Alonso will be tasked with reviving the fortunes of a Chelsea side who have struggled to compete in the Premier League this season. Their form has dipped drastically in recent weeks with Chelsea currently in the midst of a seven-game winless run in the league. The Blues are ninth in the table and face the prospect of missing out on European qualification.<\/div>\n<p>Alonso had been linked with former club Liverpool, with Arne Slot having found himself under pressure after a disappointing defence of the Premier League title.<\/p>\n<p>The expectation is that Slot will still be in charge at Anfield next season, with the club&#8217;d board keen to give the Dutchman another campaign to improve results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea have reached an agreement with Xabi Alonso to become the club&#8217;s new head coach&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9693","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\/9693","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=9693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}