Lost a bit amid brouhaha of David Luiz's absolutely sensational return to Stamford Bridge, Chelsea also signed a new full back in 25-year-old Marcos Alonso. While it's not immediately clear whether he will be a starter or not, he revealed all the usual ambitions of a new, young-ish player coming to Chelsea: to win trophies, to fight for titles, to work hard on the pitch, and to show the fans that he's deserving of the shirt.
The video above gives a good overview of Alonso's mannerisms and good English — not surprising, given the time spent at Bolton and Sunderland — while the full first interview can be seen on Chelsea TV over at the official website. Perhaps the biggest bit of trivia, while obvious after a second or two of reflection, is that the one player he knows in the squad is Gary Cahill, with whom he played (well, mostly trained) at Bolton for a season and a half. Alonso also reveals that he's talked with his pal Juan Mata (he's everyone's friend, that special Juan), and he had nothing but good things to say about Chelsea and London.
The left back describes himself as a defense-first kind of guy, which will no doubt be to Antonio Conte's liking, though he's not afraid to burst forward and contribute on offense either. He says he's had opportunities to move to the Premier League before, but is glad that he waited to continue growing both as a player and as a person at Fiorentina before making the big leap to Chelsea — the biggest step in his career, as he says.
Alonso does seem to have a reputation for doing stupid things, especially off the pitch, which seems to stem mostly from an incident in 2011, when, after a night out on the town, a car that he was driving crashed into a stone wall, killing one of the four passengers and injuring another, his brother. Spanish police charged him with drunk driving and negligent homicide, but allowed him to continue playing in England (which wasn't without controversy) while the case went to trial. Which, as far as I can tell, never actually happened and the whole thing was just dropped the case was eventually settled with a fine, a driving ban, and €500k in damages paid.
Marcos Alonso charged in 2011 in connection with alleged drink drive death of woman in car crash. Case later declared out of time by courts.
— Dan Levene (@danlevene) August 31, 2016
In this interview he comes across as a mature, or at least maturing young man, but maybe I'm reading too much into it.
In any case, welcome, Marcos Alonso. Let's win some things.