The Spaniard officially began his role as Chelsea manager at the start of the month and has spent the past two-and-a-half weeks working with his players on the training pitch.

Initially, that was done at Cobham. However, on Friday, the Blues squad travelled out to Sydney, Australia, to undertake a two-week pre-season tour that also includes stops in Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Our trip is an opportunity for Alonso and his coaching staff to work at close quarters with the players for a fortnight. Five matches are also scheduled, the first of which takes place tomorrow (Tuesday) as we face A-League side Western Sydney Wanderers. You can watch that game live on CFC+.

The fixture will provide an early yardstick for Alonso to measure the development of his side, yet the Blues manager knows there is much more hard graft required in the weeks ahead.

'We want to build a competitive team and we are in that process,' Alonso said. 'We have great quality, great talent, and we need to know what it takes to compete in the Premier League.

'We want to have a good season and we want to deserve to finish as high as possible. For that, we need to work hard to develop the team, with new players, a new coach, and new ideas.

'Sometimes that takes longer; sometimes it happens spontaneously quicker. But we are ready to try to develop the idea we have, this plan. So far, we have good feelings.'

Alonso's pedigree as a winner is beyond doubt. During his playing career, he lifted 14 trophies at club level, including two Champions Leagues. He added the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2012 UEFA European Championship with Spain.

As a coach, he guided Bayer Leverkusen to their first-ever Bundesliga title in 2024 - and they did so without losing a game. Bayer then claimed the DFB-Pokal to secure a domestic double.

It's that first-hand knowledge and experience that Alonso is trying to imprint on his Chelsea squad.

'We need to compete, we need to have good energy, we need to run, we need to work hard,' he explained. 'We need to make the sacrifices that are compulsory and mandatory in each Premier League game.

'To win each game, it's tough. We need to prepare for that and we are using this time. We will see in the first game.'