Xabi Alonso was Chelsea’s top target to replace Liam Rosenior, and they managed to get their man in the end.

Before Alonso’s appointment, Chelsea were strongly linked with Andoni Iraola. However, they opted for Alonso while Iraola remained at Bournemouth before moving to Liverpool.

Alonso and Iraola were not the only options for Chelsea, though. It has just emerged that two elite coaches who used to manage the Blues were also available.

Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte made themselves available to Chelsea

Journalist Simon Phillips has claimed on Si Phillips Talks Chelsea that both Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte made themselves available to Chelsea before the appointment of Alonso. Mourinho was still at Benfica at the time but had a release clause in his contract, which Real Madrid eventually activated.

As for Conte, he was managing Napoli, but there had been rumours all season that the Italian was unhappy. At the end of the campaign, Conte agreed to leave Napoli.

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LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 04: Estevao of Chelsea celebrates scoring his team's second goal during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on October 04, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

For example, following an upturn in form towards the end of the 2023/24 season, former co-owner Todd Boehly said at a Sportico event (via BBC Sport): “We’ve seen the last two and a half games… in the second half at Aston Villa [2-2 draw] and Tottenham [2-0 win] and West Ham [5-0 win] where we played beautiful football.

“It was so fluid, it was exactly the way we drew it up, when we came out of the back, built up and moved up the pitch, [it was] very organised and the number of shots we had. In those two and a half games, you could really start to see what we were working on coming together.”

Mourinho and Conte may be serial winners, but they would not have brought “beautiful football” to Stamford Bridge. They did not in their previous spells in west London anyway.

Both were successful, but their styles were based on being defensively solid and counter-attacking. In his first stint as Chelsea manager, Mourinho used a 4-3-3 with an attack of Didier Drogba, Arjen Robben and Damien Duff, which could blow teams away. But when it was time to defend and sacrifice attacking flair, Mourinho’s Chelsea did just that.

By the end of the 2004/05 Premier League season, the Blues had conceded just 15 goals. To this day, it is still the record for fewest goals conceded in a single Premier League campaign.

Conte used a 3-4-2-1 formation when he was Chelsea boss, meaning that the Blues defended in a back five. The Italian was just as cautious and pragmatic as Mourinho if not more.

It is clear that BlueCo did not want to go down that path, hence Alonso’s appointment. Ironically, though, the football we have seen under him has not been any different from what supporters used to watch under Conte and Mourinho.

Chelsea were dominated by Tottenham Hotspur in their 2-0 loss over the weekend. They finished the game with just 31% ball possession. John Obi Mikel says Alonso needs time, but he will not get it if Saturday becomes a continuing theme.