Xabi Alonso to Chelsea: Transfer control, style of play and Liverpool links - key questions answered

Xabi Alonso was Chelsea's number one target to become their new manager and he has now agreed to take over on a four-year contract.

The job awaiting the former Liverpool midfielder at Stamford Bridge is a daunting one. Chelsea, currently ninth in the Premier League, could miss out on European qualification entirely after seeing off Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior.

Enzo Fernandez, the £105m midfielder, has created uncertainty around his future by flirting with a move to Real Madrid. Cole Palmer's form has bottomed out, and there has been speculation that he wants out.

Chelsea has also not been the easiest place for managers to work. Maresca fell out with the hierarchy over his perceived lack of control, among other things, while Rosenior lasted only three months before being sacked.

Former Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen boss Alonso, whose appointment will be announced on Sunday, is set to become the sixth permanent appointment since Blue Co completed their takeover of Chelsea in May 2022.

Alonso's in-tray will be stacked high when he starts work on July 1. Here, Sky Sports News' chief correspondent Kaveh Solhekol analyses the most pressing issues facing Chelsea's next boss and reveals details about how he is expected to fit into BlueCo's structure.

Why have Chelsea chosen Alonso?

Chelsea had a shortlist of around five names, including Marco Silva and Andoni Iraola, and spoke to all the candidates.

Out of all the candidates they spoke to, they feel that Xabi Alonso is the outstanding candidate. He's the one they want to lead them into the future. They looked at his CV both as a player and as a manager.

As a player, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, he's won it all. With Spain, of course, he won the Euros, won the World Cup as well and was one of the best players of his generation.

As a manager, he doesn't have any Premier League experience, but he had a great season at Bayer Leverkusen, won the double, they were invincible. Then he went to Real Madrid, things went wrong, although he did win 24 out of his 34 games in charge. His win percentage was something like 70 per cent, which is pretty good.

On paper, you would have to say, apart from the fact that he hasn't managed in the Premier League, he was the outstanding candidate.

How much control will he have?

Alonso is not going to have total control. But he will be Chelsea manager, not head coach. This is in recognition of his experience, track record and because of the key role he will play in helping develop all aspects of the club.

He will have more of a say than, for instance, somebody like Liam Rosenior or maybe even Enzo Maresca.

Don't forget Maresca was doing a pretty good job in his first full season, but then the relationship began to deteriorate behind the scenes.

There was contact from Manchester City about potentially taking over from Pep Guardiola when and if he decides to leave City. So it derailed their relationship, but I think Maresca was unhappy behind the scenes. He wanted more control, the kind of control that traditionally managers have had but you're not going to get anymore.

Will Alonso's appointment change transfer strategy?

It was going to change anyway. Chelsea have realised that they need a tweak to their transfer strategy. They recognise they need a bit more experience. They want to sign three to four ready-made first-team players, including a centre-back, in the summer window.

They've seen the benefit a player with experience can bring with Levi Colwill coming back in recently after recovering from his ACL injury.

Chelsea need more players like Colwill with leadership qualities, personality and character who can sort things out when things are going wrong on the pitch.

Alonso will be involved in buying and selling players this summer. He will have a big say on who Chelsea sign but also, they're not just going to say, 'Xabi, you're in charge now. You're in charge of buying and selling players. You can do what you want'. He has to fit into the existing structure at the club.

The current football leadership structure Chelsea have will remain in place. None of the sporting directors will be leaving. They were all involved in Alonso's appointment.

What are the key issues to address this summer?

But he needs to sort out what's going to happen with Enzo Fernandez. Is he going to go to Real Madrid? Are Real Madrid going to make an offer for him? In the long term, what's going to happen to Cole Palmer? Does Palmer want to go to Manchester United? Do Manchester United even want to sign him?

I think he needs to sit down and talk to some of these players. There's also talk about Joao Pedro potentially going to Barcelona. He's not for sale, but he needs to have these conversations.

Alonso needs to really get involved in the transfer window. He needs to have more of a say than some other Chelsea head coaches have had in the past.

He also needs to manage his relationships with the people above him, the sporting directors and the owners. He's got to always keep them on side, always be very collegiate, be happy with the way that Chelsea operates and accept the fact that he's not Sir Alex Ferguson and he's not Arsene Wenger.

How will Alonso's style work at Chelsea?

There's been a lot of talk about the fact that he prefers to play with three at the back and with wing-backs. Interestingly, that is the way Chelsea played in the FA Cup final on Saturday.

Now the jury's out on whether they have the players to play that system. They do have wing-backs like Malo Gusto, Marc Cucurella as well, who are very good in that role. But do they have other players who can play in that role as well? They certainly have a lot of centre-backs. So, I don't think they'll have any problem choosing three centre-backs.

However, will not be wedded to playing three at the back at Chelsea. He used that formation at Bayer Leverkusen because it suited the players he had in his squad. He is more than happy to play with a back four and Chelsea will play different formations under him.

It's interesting to see how they'll play because there were issues inside the Real Madrid dressing room about the way Alonso wanted Real to play and the roles he had mapped out for certain players in the squad. Some of the players weren't happy with what they were being asked to do.

But I think he'll be a hard taskmaster. I also think that when he walks into that Chelsea dressing room, he'll immediately have the respect of the players. And there are some big characters in that Chelsea dressing room. There are World Cup winners in that Chelsea dressing room.

The Chelsea owners feel that that is what they need in that dressing room. Somebody who can walk in straight away and command the respect of the Chelsea players.

What awaits Alonso behind the scenes?

Chelsea have got some really, really good players. They've got world-class players. I don't think things are as bad at Chelsea as sometimes they're made out to be.

What they haven't had is the right manager in place, the manager who fits into the structure that they have at the club. They've had great managers like Thomas Tuchel, like Mauricio Pochettino, like Enzo Maresca, who won two trophies in his first season and got Chelsea back into the Champions League, but behind the scenes, there has been unrest.

There's been disharmony. People have fallen out with each other. Going forward, Alonso needs to negotiate all that as well.

It's not just about training the players. It's also about how you handle the media, how you get on with the sporting directors, how you get on with the owners, winning over the fans and how you get on with them as well.

The Chelsea fans are demanding and they've got genuine concerns about the way the club is being run. The owners are listening to those concerns. We've seen demonstrations at games.

So, just because Chelsea have got a new manager in and he's a big name, it doesn't mean that all the club's problems are solved.

Potentially not being in Europe next season might help Xabi Alonso because he'll have more time to work with the players and perhaps following the footsteps of Michael Carrick, what he's done at United, where he can just focus on the domestic front.

Were Liverpool in the picture?

I don't think Liverpool have been in the picture for Alonso at all. They've decided they're going to stick with Arne Slot. He said it himself at his news conference on Thursday that he has every reason to believe that he's still going to be the Liverpool head coach next season.

If you have read or listened to what Xabi Alonso has said in the past, one day in the future he would like to be the Liverpool manager.

If he were planning out his ideal career path, it would involve managing Liverpool one day. But the Liverpool job is not available at the moment and Liverpool have not made a move for him. They've known for a while that he's available.

Potentially if they had decided that they wanted to change direction, they could have contacted him, and made an official approach, but that has not happened.

I know a lot of Liverpool fans would love him back but he can't pick up the phone and beg Liverpool to come in for him. He can only accept the jobs that are offered to him and he knows that Chelsea really want him. That's why he's agreed to become Chelsea manager.