Chelsea to appoint Liverpool legend Xabi Alonso as head coach

Alonso was a pragmatic and intelligent midfielder whose coaching bona fides were always apparent. 

"He will come back soon as a manager, I bet," said Alonso's Munich coach Pep Guardiola upon his retirement. "Wherever he wants, he will become a manager and will be good."

Alonso cut his teeth in the Spanish second division before getting his big coaching break at Bayer Leverkusen in the German Bundesliga. The team was stacked with talent but failing to deliver as a unit, and Alonso's challenge was to change that—and fast. Leverkusen was near the bottom of the Bundesliga table when he joined and was suffering through its worst season start in decades.

In one season, Alonso took Leverkusen from the bottom to sixth place; in two, he won the Bundesliga outright while not losing a single game. His swashbuckling side played beautiful, fluid, aggressive soccer, and several of his previously overlooked players—defender Piero Hincapie, playmaker Florian Wirtz, and utility man Jeremie Frimpong, to name a few—went on to join major European clubs on large contracts following their Leverkusen success.

Alonso's magic work with Leverkusen earned him the top coaching job at Real Madrid. He lasted just seven months there before being dismissed, but recent developments at Madrid point to Alonso's struggles being far from his own fault.

Liverpool's loss, Chelsea's gain

While Alonso was always expected to coach in the Premier League someday, precious few saw him heading to Chelsea. Alonso spent five seasons with Liverpool as a player, after all, winning a Champions League title with the club in 2005. If he landed anywhere in England, surely he would land back home in Liverpool...especially with current Liverpool coach Arne Slot receiving very little love from the fanbase.

It wasn't to be. We don't yet know whether Liverpool approached Alonso about a head coaching job—it's only shared that it intends to stick with embattled Slot—but it certainly seems like he would've been a natural fit.

For now, though, Alonso appears to be heading to London.

Chelsea will return to Premier League action on Tuesday, May 19, against Tottenham Hotspur before closing out its 2025-26 Premier League season on Sunday, May 24, against Sunderland.