{"id":956366,"date":"2026-05-13T05:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/956366\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T05:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:26:18","slug":"xabi-alonso-agreement-reached-as-chelsea-approach-could-end-liverpool-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/956366\/","title":{"rendered":"Xabi Alonso agreement reached as Chelsea approach could end Liverpool hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Xabi Alonso might well be heading to the Premier League this summer, with the former Liverpool midfielder on the radar of Chelsea ahead of a possible appointment\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Real Madrid head coach Xabi Alonso.(Image: Florencia Tan Jun\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Jamie Carragher and Joe Cole are in agreement that it might be now or never for Xabi Alonso to become Liverpool head coach \u2014 though Arne Slot is expected to keep his job this summer.<\/p>\n

Alonso’s availability has regularly been put forward<\/a> as a case for Slot being moved on, even though there are huge mitigations for why the season has not gone to plan at Anfield. A year on from winning the Premier League title<\/a>, Slot admitted last weekend that he can’t turn fan opinion around in the next two games, but did insist that things would be different next year.<\/p>\n

With Alonso’s options limited, he might be open to a move to Stamford Bridge this summer. The Spaniard has been out of work since being fired by Real Madrid<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Trent Alexander-Arnold faces fresh Real Madrid chaos and Jose Mourinho storm<\/a>READ MORE: Jamie Carragher makes Xabi Alonso to Liverpool prediction amid Chelsea talks – ‘I’m sure he would’<\/a><\/p>\n

“I can understand why (Chelsea) would go for Xabi Alonso,” Carragher<\/a> said on Sky Sports\u2019 Monday Night Football.<\/p>\n

“It felt like, less than 12 months ago, he was the new kid on the block, if you like, in terms of big managers, you\u2019re thinking whether he could be the next… sort of like Pep [Guardiola]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Great playing career, then goes into management, has a great start, doesn\u2019t quite work out at Madrid, but I think Madrid made a mistake in getting rid of him.<\/p>\n

“I think it would be a great coup for Chelsea. I just thought, maybe me kidding myself, obviously I\u2019ve still got good relations with Xabi, but when players like Stevie [Gerrard]<\/a> or Xabi go into management, I almost step back a little bit.<\/p>\n

\"Real<\/p>\n

Xabi Alonso has been strongly linked with Chelsea job(Image: FADEL SENNA, AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t want to be the type of guy that\u2019s always asking questions or trying to find out something.<\/p>\n

“I think he would love to manage Liverpool one day, I\u2019m sure he would. But Chelsea is one of the biggest clubs in European football right now.<\/p>\n

“I think once you manage one of Liverpool\u2019s rivals, as Chelsea<\/a> are, I think it makes it a little bit more difficult. I don\u2019t see how you go from Chelsea to Liverpool. Maybe a bit down the road, but I think it makes it more difficult.”<\/p>\n

While heading to Chelsea would not rule anything out in the future, Joe Cole is of a similar opinion to Carragher. Going to Chelsea now would at best mean a move elsewhere before a return to Anfield, should that be a possibility in the future.<\/p>\n

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“I always come back to the fact that Xabi Alonso\u2019s available, and that is the thing that is always hanging there,” Cole said recently on TNT Sports.<\/p>\n

“He might not be available again. You see what he did with Leverkusen, it didn\u2019t work at Real Madrid, so there\u2019s that. But of course, Arne Slot should stay. It\u2019s just Xabi Alonso\u2019s there, and this place would light up again with him in the hot seat.”<\/p>\n

Alonso’s former teammate, Bolo Zenden, said this week that he should avoid Chelsea because it is too big a risk<\/a>. However, there are not loads of other options out there for the Spaniard having already managed in the Bundesliga and La Liga.<\/p>\n

With PSG off the table as Luis Enrique is set to stay and the Manchester United job likely unappealing, Chelsea might be Alonso’s only remaining choice.<\/p>\n

Going to Stamford Bridge, though, at least in the view of Carragher and Cole, could mean that getting the Liverpool job further down the line becomes much more difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xabi Alonso might well be heading to the Premier League this summer, with the former Liverpool midfielder on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":956367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,6274,393,4884,4110,179,763,16,15,19715],"class_list":{"0":"post-956366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-chelsea-fc","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-jamie-carragher","13":"tag-liverpool","14":"tag-liverpool-fc","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-xabi-alonso"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116565612431625333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}