The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

Chelsea fans, a few of them, well, the ones in the UK, will be going to sleep with the news that they’ve all but appointed former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso as their new manager.

Alonso has agreed to become Chelsea’s new manager on a four-year deal, making him the sixth full-time manager in the club’s history. It begs the question: Can he be a success at Stamford Bridge?

The short answer is yes, of course, he can, but with Chelsea, there’s no short answer. They’re in disarray from the top to bottom. Chelsea hired an elite manager before, in Mauricio Pochettino, and that ended in tears as the Argentine left.

What’s different about Alonso is that he got the premium from a squad that arguably wasn’t capable of winning the Bundesliga on paper. This Chelsea team has potential for sure.

The Blues have good players such as Cole Palmer, Enzo Fernandez, and Moises Caicedo; Alonso has something to work with. So the signs seem good, and the former Sociedad coach can work his magic like he did for Leverkusen.

Where Xabi can come unstuck is with the fact that Chelsea, just like Real Madrid, appears to have what I call a strong player base. This has been present even when Jose Mourinho was there, but the difference was that the players never seemed to overstep their limits.

During Liam Rosenior’s tenure, senior players seemed to be staging an open revolt against the manager. Alonso got unstuck at Real Madrid in his last job due to the same issue. The other issue, which Xabi Alonso will need to be wary of, is apparent boardroom influence.

Rumours were rife that the Real board were meddling in team affairs, which has been alleged with Chelsea. Can Xabi Alonso be a success at Chelsea? Yes, but so could Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino.

Chelsea’s board, don’t meddle with first-team matters and give your coach time and backing, then yes, he could be a success, a resounding success.