Chelsea's Xabi Alonso: "Henderson and Welbeck Signings More Crucial Than Victory" Following Stunning Double Transfer

XABI ALONSO is not used to failure.

The new boss won 12 major titles as a player, including a World Cup and a with and already has a and German Cup double as a manager.

Xabi Alonso is happy with the signings of Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson Credit: AFP Welbeck and Henderson add plenty of experience to the Blues’ squad Credit: Getty

Alonso, then, looks at home in the swanky presidential suite of the W Hotel overlooking Darling Harbour in Sydney, ‘s eye-catching home for the Australian leg of their pre-season tour.

Really, he should not be here at all. But it is to the Blues’ immense benefit that he is sat at the marble breakfast bar now.

It was natural that Alonso’s meteoric rise as a coach took him back to this time last summer.

What followed, departing in January after less than eight months in the eye of the Real storm, hurt.

But Alonso arrives at Chelsea empowered, the first to be given the title of manager under this ownership, and, he says, healed after his bruising experience in the Spanish capital.

Alonso said: “Luckily there are not too many scars in my career.

“So, okay, I got a scar. Now it is healed and now I am very motivated and determined to enjoy this next step as I did when I started in Madrid. But you move on.

“Looking back I take the positives and the things that didn’t work. I have been very critical about myself, thinking about what I could have done better because for sure it did not go as expected. But you move on to other things.

“There are many experiences, the adaptation I had to do, some things that worked and some things that didn’t in terms of the game, in terms of the man-management. It is a mixture of everything.”

The brief Madrid tenure has not dulled Alonso’s conviction or ambitions as a manager. It is a career he was destined for, ever since helping dad Periko plan his training sessions in the family kitchen in San Sebastian.

Periko managed local club Real Sociedad, where Alonso and his brother, Mikel, came through the academy, for a brief spell, though his son was on loan at Eibar at the time.

Alonso said: “He was all work. Preparing the training for the next day, preparing the team selection. That was in the kitchen and I was next to him. Did I help? I had an opinion…

“The road was not unknown for me. I had seen that at home.

“I started playing , you become a professional, things go well, you like it, and being a midfielder, I was always curious about not just playing but why things are happening. I’m not saying it was meant to be, but I had to try it.”

The traditions of Real Sociedad, San Sebastian and the Basque Country are crucial in Alonso’s outlook and grounding as a coach.

But in the town on Spain’s north coast, while hard work and togetherness are paramount, nothing comes close to the importance of food.

Jordan Henderson will be the oldest player in the squad Credit: Getty

So while Alonso has not found a house in London yet, it is a relief for Chelsea he has found somewhere to eat.

He said: “I was in a brasserie in Chelsea that is really close to the stadium. My wife liked it. We will have enough time [to find others].

“The Basque people, we are not obsessed, but we give a lot of importance to food and good restaurants.”

Alonso does not claim to be a stellar cook, but says his speciality is a Basque dish called Kokotxas, hake served in salsa verde.

He may not earn a Michelin star, like many from his hometown, but he was a master as a player and is working his way towards replicating that as a manager.

A visionary midfielder, Alonso played under some modern management greats and picked the brains of them all, from and , to and .

It was under Guardiola at , in the twilight of his playing days, Alonso started to really become invested and pester the legendary boss.

He added: “We were very close. I was very curious.

Alonso is still looking for somewhere to live in Chelsea Credit: Reuters He worked with Pep Guardiola while he played for Bayern Munich Credit: AFP or licensors

“I was in that moment of my career where I could go to his office, “Pep, why is this happening? What’s going to be the game plan?” Maybe when I was 20, I didn’t have that confidence, to go to the manager’s office to ask those things.

“But at that moment, because of the trust, I needed to do that, I wanted to do that.”

That coaching education and his early success as a manager convinced Chelsea he was the man to revive them after a chaotic season.

But why, given his status, was Chelsea the right choice for him? and his gut to explain.

He said: “It had to be a lot from here, and also from here. It has to be from the guts.

“I saw it was good timing from the club, good timing for myself, a good opportunity. It is a team that has played really well recently and the situation was not as bad as it looked at the end of last season.

“There is a big potential to improve and let’s see how long it takes. I felt that I had the chance to enjoy being a manager.”

The real guarantee of enjoyment is success, and the new boss and those above him have decided they need to change in order to get there.

Deals for veterans and , himself a Premier League and winner, have followed Alonso’s appointment.

A was the underpinning of his invincible Leverkusen side.

He said: “You need the right balance of personalities, of maturity stages, early twenties with early thirties and in between, players in different stages of their careers.

“There’s not a formula for that, but there is a feeling for that.

“For me, this is as important as tactics. First it is the team spirit. After it is playing good football. After it is winning games.

“I felt much more responsible for the team than in my earlier years as a player.

“I wanted to not just think about myself but think about my team-mates and about how we were going to play and about supporting the young players.”