Xabi Alonso has taken his first training session since starting work as Chelsea's new manager.
After fulfilling media duties and taking another tour of the club's facilities, the Spaniard got his new era underway on the Cobham training pitch.
Friday morning saw Alonso lead an outdoor training session that included a large contingent of Chelsea players; some from the first team and others from the youth academy.
Xabi Alonso takes first Chelsea training session
The work the 44-year-old did at Bayer Leverkusen, which saw the Germans go unbeaten en route to their first-ever Bundesliga title in 2023-24, has seen him earn a huge reputation of being one of Europe's most hands on and demanding coaches.
And according to BBC Sport, he has brought that same approach to Chelsea. The former Real Madrid and Liverpool midfielder's first training session saw the squad told to report at 9 a.m. for an extended session that saw their new boss focus on ball work and fitness.
Although Alonso was without several key players due to their participation in this summer's World Cup in North America, the Spaniard still oversaw a lot of talent, including Cole Palmer, who was controversially left out of Thomas Tuchel's England squad.
Several Chelsea stars took part
Along with Palmer, Joao Pedro and Levi Colwill were also involved as were new signings and recent arrivals Geovany Quenda, Emmanuel Emegha and Dastan Satpaev.
The other outfield players spotted taking part in Alonso's first session included: Aaron Anselmino, Wesley Fofana, Dario Essugo, Jamie Gittens, Liam Delap, Josh Acheampong, Estevao Willian and Romeo Lavia.
Robert Sanchez, Filip Jorgensen, Gabriel Slonina and Teddy Sharman-Lowe were all present for specialist goalkeeper training.
And interestingly, Alonso also opted to include several youth academy players in his session. Reggie Walsh (midfielder), Mahdi Nichol-Jazuli (midfielder), Landon Emenalo (midfielder), Ryan Kavuma-McQueen (forward) and Calvin Diakite (defender) all took part.
At Cobham until pre-season
The Chelsea squad will continue to train at their Cobham facility until they jet off for their pre-season tour of Australia and Asia on 25 July.
The Blues' first pre-season game will be against Western Sydney Wanderers on 28 July before facing Spurs, Juventus, AC Milan and Johor Darul Ta'zim.
Alonso will hope to implement as much of his philosophy and style of play as possible before the start of the 2026-27 Premier League which sees Chelsea kick off their campaign away to Fulham on 24 August.
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