Pep Guardiola has delivered a pointed message to Chelsea’s owners at precisely the right moment, as the club prepares to hand the managerial reins to Xabi Alonso.
The Manchester City boss, speaking after his side’s FA Cup final victory over Chelsea at Wembley on Saturday, emphasised the critical importance of stability and patience in building sustained success. His comments come as BlueCo, the consortium that has owned Chelsea since May 2022, edges closer to confirming Alonso as the club’s next permanent head coach.
The 44-year-old Spaniard, who has been out of work since leaving Real Madrid in January, is set to replace interim boss Calum McFarlane at the end of the season. Football.london understands that Chelsea have reached an agreement with Alonso on a four-year contract, with an official announcement expected in the coming days.
Alonso edged out other candidates including Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola and Fulham’s Marco Silva, as senior figures at Stamford Bridge identified the former Liverpool midfielder as their primary target.
Guardiola’s post-match remarks at Wembley carried unmistakable relevance for Chelsea’s hierarchy. Reflecting on his own remarkable longevity at the Etihad Stadium, where he has been in charge since July 2016, the Catalan manager highlighted the value of time and unwavering support through difficult periods.
“I’m the longest [serving manager in the top four divisions] because we want a lot,” Guardiola said. “We need time. In football, like everything in life, you need to adapt… this period, there are moments of the first season, last seasons and moments during this season was no good.”
He continued: “I never felt they blamed me… What can we do to improve to get better together, and most of the clubs, when it’s bad… sacked… sacked. It can be better, but it can be worse, and one of the great successes is the stability that is above me. Without that, you don’t have this.”
Currently the third-longest-serving active manager in Europe’s top five leagues — behind only Frank Schmidt at Heidenheim and Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid — Guardiola has enjoyed the kind of patience that has become increasingly rare in modern football. With one year remaining on his contract, his words served as both a reflection on his own success and an implicit lesson for Chelsea’s ownership.
Since the Todd Boehly-led BlueCo takeover, Chelsea have struggled to provide head coaches with the stability Guardiola describes. Alonso will now hope to buck that trend and fulfil the duration of his incoming four-year deal.
Guardiola has form for endorsing the incoming Chelsea boss. Back in 2024, while Alonso was guiding Bayer Leverkusen on their remarkable unbeaten Bundesliga title-winning campaign, the City manager was effusive in his praise.
“If you ask me about the job he is doing, honestly — wow,” Guardiola said at the time. “He is unbeaten. His team is the only unbeaten team in all competitions in modern football, fighting with Bayern Munich… Just the way they play. They did not lose one game. I was incredibly fortunate to have him for one and a half or two years [at Bayern Munich] and he was such an intelligent player.”