Former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin believes Xabi Alonso’s arrival at Stamford Bridge will prompt a shift in philosophy from the club’s owners.
The West Londoners are coming off a disappointing season with Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Sunderland seeing them finish in 10th place in the Premier League and miss out on European football.
Alonso will look to rebuild and Nevin is confident BlueCo will have learned from their previous mistakes and enable the Spaniard to sign ‘ready-made’ players and shift away from their previous model of signing youngsters and hoping they develop.
Speaking to 101 Great Goals via BetSelect.co.uk, Nevin said: “Yes they do [need to change philosophy] and this time I think they will. They have got a top-level manager in Alonso, who doesn’t need the job, he could have waited and probably got Liverpool. There’s no way in the world they’re going to get him some 19-year-olds who will be great in three years’ time, especially after what he’s just been through at Real Madrid.
“He’ll be saying ‘get me people I can trust from day one’.”
Alonso will succeed at Chelsea, if he is backed – Nevin
Former Scotland international Nevin, who made nearly 200 appearances for Chelsea in the 1980s and has since carved out a successful career in the media, also hopes Alonso’s arrival will change the level of responsibility afforded to the manager at the club.
“The management culture has not really worked,” he added. “To [ask someone] to come in and not do any managing, just coach, that would feel disrespectful. People who haven’t played at the top level telling you what to do all the time even though you’re supposed to be the manager and you’re the one taking the hit in the press.
“They’ve now brought in Alonso and saying he will have more control, all the things we’ve been saying for the past four years.”
Asked whether he thinks Alonso will be a success at Stamford Bridge, Nevin was positive, providing that promised change actually takes place.
“All the information up to now says it would probably go the same way and that he’ll be out on his ear in a year’s time,” he added. “That’s what the information tells you but maybe lessons have been learned.
“He’s a super coach and he will have the respect of the players. It will almost certainly work for him if he’s given the backing and enough space. I’m delighted to see him there.”
Managerial change at Chelsea has looked ‘horribly messy’
Alonso will succeed Liam Rosenior as the new full-time manager after Calum McFarlane’s interim spell. Enzo Maresca, who led the club to the world title last summer, was sacked on New Year’s Day and Rosenior suffered a similar fate in April.
The managerial uncertainty has contributed to a poor season but plenty of blame should also be pinned on a group of players that have underachieved. They were overwhelmed at the Stadium of Light at the weekend and Nevin said it was a fitting way for the campaign to end.
He said: “There were periods [of the season] that were interesting and quite good but when they changed managers and Rosenior came in, it was clear the players weren’t having him and it got ugly. It looked horribly messy.
“They [BlueCo] have shown a lot of patience, they came in and said they were going to do it a different way. And just because I wouldn’t do it that way doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
“But after three or four years you say, ‘okay, now deliver on it’. I would have expected at this stage of the season for Chelsea’s flourish to happen and they’d suddenly become grown up, mature players who grew together and were a team with spirit but that doesn’t sound like Chelsea I’m describing.
“That’s the sadness of it. The stuff that many of us who have been in the game were saying but weren’t being listened to has come home to roost.”
