Xabi Alonso: Was Chelsea’s New Manager Underrated as a Player?

Xabi Alonso is one of nine new managers in the Premier League this season, with two others taking charge of their first full campaign. Fans and pundits are hugely intrigued by what the likes of Alonso, Andoni Iraola and Enzo Maresca can achieve with Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, respectively. Which of the exciting appointments will prove to be the most successful remains to be seen.

However, of the record total of nine newcomers, there is no doubt at all about who the best player was. Two of the nine played for Real Madrid, Liverpool and Spain, but it is Alonso, rather than Fulham’s new boss Alvaro Arbeloa, who enjoyed the most success on the pitch. However, despite the many trophies former midfielder Alonso won and the plaudits and praise he has received, we would argue that he was actually massively underrated.

Midfielder’s Brilliance Lost in Era of Icons

Nobody doubts that Alonso was a top-class player. He was signed by some of the greatest managers of all time and played under Vicente Del Bosque for Spain, plus Carlo Ancelotti, Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez. Learning from those greats has played a huge role in his development as a manager, but it also shows how highly regarded he was by many of the world’s best coaches.

What’s more, he has played for Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. As measured by wins in the European Cup/Champions League, those are the three biggest and best clubs in England, Spain and Germany. All in all, not a bad CV.

And yet, somehow, he has never been a contender for the Ballon d’Or and never really been viewed in that sort of light. Ask 100 fans to name some of the best midfielders of the 21st century, and you might have to wait some time before the name “Xabi Alonso” comes up. In fact, ask those same fans to name their best five Spanish midfield players of the past 25 years or so, and there is a chance that Alonso would not even make the grade. That perhaps explains why he is underrated, in both senses.

First, he is overlooked because his excellence gets forgotten when compared to players such as Xavi, Rodri or Andres Iniesta. But second, our justification for labelling him underrated rests on the fact that despite such competition, the new Chelsea boss still earned 114 caps for a truly sensational Spain team.

International Recognition Proves Class

Alonso was born in Tolosa, in Spain’s Basque region, a football heartland that has given us so many magnificent players. And coaches. Indeed, Mikel Arteta, Andoni Iraola and Unai Emery are all not only from the Basque Country, but from the same Gipuzkoa province as Alonso. Another former Premier League boss, Julen Lopetegui, also hails from the area, Spain’s smallest province.

That three current Premier League managers all hail from the same area is incredible. It is even more amazing when we consider that Gipuzkoa has a population of around 800,000 and the three managers in question are at three of the biggest clubs in the land.

Spain, and particularly the Basque region, has such a strong identity, both on and off the pitch.
Spanish football is all about short passes, control and midfield dominance. The style of coaching the country has long used seems able to churn out these phenomenal midfield metronomes who read and understand the game so much better than their English counterparts.

In the current team, Rodri is head and shoulders above everyone else, but the likes of Fabian Ruiz and Dani Olmo also display the same football IQ and awareness. This ability to see and fix problems in real time on the pitch helps these same great players become incredible coaches.

Looking back to the era in which Alonso played for Spain, we see an even higher calibre of midfield maestros. Alonso made his Spain debut in 2003 and played his last game for La Roja in 2014. He earned ten or more caps in seven international seasons, including five in a row between 2008 and 2012. Incidentally, that period can be classed as Spain’s most golden era, spanning the years when they won two Euros and the World Cup.

That was one of the finest teams of all time, and Alonso was a regular. And yet the competition he faced in the middle of the pitch was unbelievable, as the table below shows.

Given Spain also had the likes of Santi Cazorla, Marcos Senna, Juan Mata, Thiago Alcantara and others available as well, for Alonso to have won the caps he did shows just how good he was. For reference, it is worth pointing out that Arteta, who is a close friend of Alonso and played alongside him with youth team Antiguoko, did not win a single senior Spain cap. That, despite winning a European trophy with PSG, the league and cup double in Spain, two FA Cups with Arsenal, and making 284 Premier League appearances (41 goals and 42 assists).

Alonso was some player, and thus far he is proving to be some manager too.