When Carra met Chelsea boss Alonso

Sky Sports' Jamie Carragher sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso in which the pair discussed his appointment at Stamford Bridge and his aims for the season, as well as looking back at their time playing together at Liverpool.

Why did you choose to join Chelsea?

"It was about the timing. For me, it was the right timing after Leverkusen. After Madrid, I had my time off and I wanted to have that good feeling, that good connection about where to go.

"I had no link to Chelsea, but with the potential that was here, a few things could change and I thought we could start the journey together.

"I had a feeling that the very strong base of the squad was very good and with some updates, some improvements, some new signings, we could have a solid team. And that it was going to be a project.

"It's not that, in year one it's already done; we know it might take some more years, but the first year is important. It's just starting but, so far, the feeling that we could be aligned taking decisions is going to be important."

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Did you think about the Chelsea ownership coming into initial talks?

"From outside, I had the view of what I read, what I saw about the team, but then you get to know the people, you get to know their analysis, the things they have done, the things they thought could be done better, where we were and where we wanted to take the club.

"Knowing that, in many processes, many decisions, I was going to be part of it, was important. There is the ownership, the sporting director and me, but we are always connected and we have good communication.

"That's basic, to take responsibility. Things after can go well or not go well because this is football, but in the end, you want to feel part of it."

Was Chelsea's managerial history something you thought about?

"No, it was not a worry because I know what you need to get results, but I had the feeling we were on the same page.

"We knew that where we want to be next year or in two years will take time and this is the process of building things the right way and that's why the first phase we have improved in the team has been good.

"It's just seven games, but we have a clear direction of what we want. Zero worry about this. This is football, you need to get the results. But to have the feeling we are doing things in the right way and that we have a plan is as important for me as the results."

Is winning the Premier League, getting back into the Champions League in the plan?

"In the medium to long-term, yes. We know that takes time and many right decisions. We won't make all the right decisions but, for me, being involved in the key decisions is as important as the rest.

"This is the ambition of the club. This club has won Champions Leagues and Premier Leagues not so long ago and we want to be back there, but we are not stupid to think this has to come right now. Time will tell when that can come."

Is the set-up different to your previous experiences?

"My experience in Germany is different from my experience in Spain and now. In Germany, you work very closely with the sporting director every day. That's very different from England.

"I had that relationship with Simon Rolfs where he was in the office with me every day, but not to say 'You need to do this!'

"It was to chat about the momentum of one player or a player is in a bad mood or we have had talks. Normal things. In the end, this close relationship made us a very good tandem, and it worked really well.

"At Chelsea, Sam (Jewell), Paul (Winstanley), Joe (Shields) are really close to the team as well."

What are your early memories of joining Liverpool?

"I remember not many English players used to watch LaLiga, but you were one of the ones watching LaLiga, Barcelona and Real Madrid, of course, but Atletico, Deportivo La Coruna.

"We used those games to talk more about football. We started getting to know each other and you were football mad, I was football mad.

"I learned as well that you need to earn the respect of the guys that were there. You need to have a proper impact on Stevie [Gerrard] Carra, Didi Hamann, Sami Hyypia. I knew I needed to earn my place, I need to earn my respect.

"Happily, it didn't take too long. It didn't take as long as it could coming from Real Sociedad, being 21. It was quite quick.

"I remember Bolton was proper, with Sam Allardyce. Gary Speed tackled me and said 'Welcome to the Premier League!'

"One of the first games was against Norwich at home and we won 3-0 and I played a very good game. Then people start respecting you and saying 'He can play' and, little by little, you start making your own things in the club and you get the respect of the established and local players.

"That was very important because, if not, you can struggle with the adaptation at the beginning."

What are the biggest differences between when you came to the Premier League as a player to what you see now as a manager?

"I would say the gap between the top clubs and the rest, 20 years ago, was much bigger than it is. The players are more complete. You hardly see a player that is not so fit or not so prepared physically.

"Tactically, the gameplans are really sophisticated nowadays. I'm still getting into the tempo of the Premier League because, for me, it has been a change. I try to learn as quickly as possible, but now it's very sophisticated, even the squads are so complete.

"Something has not changed: the energy that is created in the stadiums. For me, it feels the same. At the noise... we were playing against Everton and the noise and energy that was created in this stadium, that has not changed.

"For me, it's very different to the sounds of the Bundesliga or Spain. My first game against Fulham we played in the Premier League, I said 'This smells like the Premier League!'"

What do you mean about still getting up to speed?

"Before, you knew the top teams could play. But you knew, with the other teams, if you were going to press a little bit, even with one less player, normally they would play long and you would have to be ready.

"Now, that's not enough. Now, you need to prepare what's going to be the trigger point from one side; find solutions to that, so all the teams are much more complete.

"The game is much more sophisticated in the way that it has developed a lot. Teams have solutions and very good patterns."

Is there a certain methodology behind Spain's football success?

"Yes, there is a big methodology, but it has been built for 20 years. It is not something that has been built in two years.

"For example, Luis de la Fuente has been part of the youth national teams for a lot of time and he knows them very well. These players have played together for a long time and when they were 17,18, they were already playing together and they became elite players playing together.

"Now, they have this connection. You see that they are so dominant in how they play and this has a lot to do with the work the clubs do.

"I am from Real Sociedad and the way they work there, they put a lot of focus on the young players and they give them the potential. But I have to be honest, here at Chelsea they work really well and I'm really impressed with some of the young players we have.

"As well, I see the English team - they are getting there. With Thomas Tuchel, they nearly got to the final, they got to the semis. This England team is getting close. You see the players and they are very good players. They need to take the next step to develop to be winning something. They are not too far."

Why do England not produce the types of players that can control big games?

"To reach such control in the Premier League is very difficult. I think you have to be a top, top team and top players if you are able to control the game in such a manner to be so dominant.

"We are not the quickest, but we need to think quick and the players they need to think quick. That's why they develop game intelligence, awareness.

"Rodri, for example, is one step ahead, one metre ahead. How? Training, habits. The same way Sergio Busquets used to do that. He was not the quickest, but he was the smartest on the pitch and that's a pattern that is repeated in Spain because of the collective purpose of the development of the team."

What are the differences between the top managers you worked under and what did you take from them?

"Each one was really important at that stage of my career. For example, being 21/22 at Liverpool, if I had Carlo Ancelotti, it's different to when I had Ancelotti when I was 30 at Real Madrid.

"At that time, I needed a lot of tactical input, I needed a lot of explanation and Rafa Benitez was very good at that. After, I became more mature as a player.

"I then went to Madrid and I was mainly with Jose Mourinho and with Ancelotti, but that's about competing, about your mentality. I was a good player, but I could get better. It was about competing, about a winning mentality, about being tougher and I got more mature in Madrid.

"My last spell in Munich was like, after the university degree you want to have a Masters. I worked with Pep. I was so curious about why they played so well and I wanted to be inside.

"That last stage of my career in Munich made my transition to try to become a coach. I started thinking about the processes, how things happen, how you need to work and I paid a lot of attention in those years because I knew the end was getting closer and, at the end, I was going to try eventually to try to become a coach."

Did you ever speak to those managers about becoming a coach?

"With Ancelotti and with Pep. I remember my last year with Ancelotti, he invited me to do a team talk in pre-season. Pep had many midfield players where he had a good connection. For me, that was no surprise that I was so interested in the end to try to eventually become a coach."

When did you start having your own ideas?

"For me, it was more about how did I feel with a group? How did I feel talking to a group? The connection I had with the players, how I managed telling people they weren't going to play. If those decisions stress you so much, you know the job is so hard and can be so demanding.

"If you understand them as part of the job and you enjoy them somehow, that's when you can take the job naturally. I felt it. After, let's talk about football.

"I was a midfielder, so I was about control: how to control the game, how to give it more balance, how to have distances, how to not be up and down. That was how I started, but after it's about adapting to the players you have, the league where you are.

"For example, I went to Leverkusen and the team was in a difficult position. We became a very counter-attacking team. I saw the team and said 'Now we are in a difficult position and it's not about trying to play the nicest game, it's about competing'.

"We changed the system, we were very compact, defending tight and very good on the counter-attack and we ended up playing the semi-finals of the Europa League and qualifying. I have ideas and what I like, but you try to adapt as well."

Watch the full interview on Sky Sports Premier League at 7.30pm on Sunday October 25