Chelsea is set to appoint Xabi Alonso as new manager, four months after his dismissal from Real Madrid, according to media reports on Saturday.
The Spaniard has reached an agreement in principle with the Premier League club and could be appointed before their match against Tottenham on Tuesday, reported Britain’s Press Association.
Chelsea was not expected to name a permanent successor to Liam Rosenior, who lost his job last month, before the end of the season.
But signing Alonso would be a huge coup for the Blues, who have endured a miserable campaign and lost Saturday’s FA Cup final 1-0 to Manchester City after Antoine Semenyo struck a second half winner against them at Wembley Stadium.
Alonso coached Real Madrid’s U14 team before being appointed as manager of Real Sociedad B in 2019, where he won promotion to the Segunda División in his second season. Alonso was named head coach of Bayer Leverkusen in 2022 and completed an unprecedented unbeaten domestic double in 2024, winning the club’s first ever Bundesliga title and first DFB-Pokal since 1993. After two-and-a-half years with the German side, Alonso was appointed as the new head coach of his former club Real Madrid in June 2025, but he left the club seven months later by mutual consent.
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Alonso led Bayer Leverkusen to their maiden Bundesliga title with a remarkable unbeaten campaign in 2023/24.
But the 44-year-old’s stay with Madrid proved short-lived as he lasted just seven months at the Santiago Bernabeu before being replaced by Alvaro Arbeloa.
Alonso, who played in England for Liverpool, would be the fifth permanent Chelsea manager since owners BlueCo bought the club in 2022, after Graham Potter, Mauricio Pochettino, Enzo Maresca and Rosenior.
Chelsea sits ninth in the Premier League table and are unlikely to qualify for European football next season, with just two matches remaining this campaign.
For Chelsea, it is now a seventh successive domestic cup final in a row and their hopes of qualifying for Europe next season are now hanging by a thread.
AFP
