{"id":333926,"date":"2026-05-13T12:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T06:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=333926"},"modified":"2026-05-13T12:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T06:46:12","slug":"chelsea-urged-to-snub-xabi-alonso-for-perfect-premier-league-manager-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/chelsea-urged-to-snub-xabi-alonso-for-perfect-premier-league-manager-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea urged to snub Xabi Alonso for &#8216;perfect&#8217; Premier League manager | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><figcaption>Calum McFarlane is Chelsea\u2019s current interim manager until the top of the season (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Chelsea have been urged to forgo Xabi Alonso and as a substitute hire Premier League-proven manager Marco Silva this summer.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues are currently forming their shortlist to fill their everlasting managerial emptiness following the sacking of Liam Rosenior last month.<\/p>\n<p>Callum McFarlane will remain in post until the top of the season, however the Blues are reportedly keen to have a alternative named before the beginning of this summer\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Recent reports suggest that Chelsea have made contact with former Liverpool midfielder Alonso following his departure from Real Madrid earlier this season.<\/p>\n<p>The Spaniard, who guided Bayer Leverkusen to a historic league and cup double in 2024, is extremely regarded by Chelsea and has also been linked with Liverpool as a possible alternative to Arne Slot.<\/p>\n<p>Outgoing Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola can be said to feature high up in Chelsea\u2019s shortlist, having guided the Cherries to the brink of European football this season.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, former Premier League striker Gabby Agbonlahor has thrown his support behind Fulham boss Silva, who has proven a gradual pair of hands since his appointment at Craven Cottage back in 2021.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"419\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275438787.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28337172\" alt=\"Fulham v Bournemouth - Premier League\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Marco Silva\u2019s contract at Fulham runs out at the top of the season (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Portuguese coach helped Fulham break their record Premier League points tally last season, and Agbonlahor is confident that the 48-year-old has the \u2018perfect\u2019 temperament to whip Chelsea\u2019s young side into shape.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Marco Silva is the proper character that these big-time Charlies at Chelsea need,\u2019 he told talkSPORT.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The best way they\u2019ve removed Rosenior, they\u2019ll do it to a soft manager that is available in. They need a hard-hitting manager.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Marco Silva doesn\u2019t take any nonsense. We\u2019ve seen him on the sidelines, much like Antonio Conte\u2019s type of style.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2255217429_2d661c.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28337167\" alt=\"FBL-KSA-SUPERCUP-BARCELONA-REAL MADRID\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Chelsea have reportedly made contact with Xabi Alonso (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018He&#8217;ll go into that football club Chelsea in pre-season, sort them out. [He will work out] who\u2019s on side, who\u2019s going to work hard, who\u2019s going to follow runners, who\u2019s going to run?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Agbonlahor continued: \u2018What number of games this season have Chelsea been outrun? That\u2019s incredible. That\u2019s essentially the most embarrassing stat for a manager, in case your team isn\u2019t running.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Once I was ending football, players were being played because they may run greater than players which can be probably technically higher.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018So to see that from Chelsea, they need a tough manager like Marco Silva getting into there.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Silva is out of contract at the top of the season, but recently pushed back on any speculation linking hi wit ha move to Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I don\u2019t pay any attention,\u2019 he said last week. \u2018We&#8217;ve decisive games ahead, and all the main target goes to be on them.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this,\u00a0check our sport page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Follow Metro Sport for the most recent news on <meta charset=\"utf-8\"><br \/>\n<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sportmetro\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Metro_Sport\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/metrosportuk\/\">Instagram<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Paul Scholes reveals Manchester United \u2018problem\u2019 with signing Cole Palmer from Chelsea<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Paul Scholes names Arsenal star who \u2018suits\u2019 playing right-back as injury crisis looms<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Roberto De Zerbi blames Arsenal game for Spurs vs Leeds referee not being \u2018calm\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\"><a class=\"metro-button share-bar-comments\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Calum McFarlane is Chelsea\u2019s current interim manager until the top of the season (Picture: Getty) Chelsea have been urged to forgo Xabi Alonso and as a substitute hire Premier League-proven manager Marco Silva this summer. The Blues are currently forming their shortlist to fill their everlasting managerial emptiness following the sacking of Liam Rosenior last [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":333927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20686],"tags":[7352,1289,5479,622,550,1172,676,22373,5214,7351],"class_list":["post-333926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-alonso","tag-chelsea","tag-football","tag-league","tag-manager","tag-perfect","tag-premier","tag-snub","tag-urged","tag-xabi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333926"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333929,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333926\/revisions\/333929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}