Cole tells Alonso to sign England star as one of two free transfers at Chelsea | OneFootball

Joe Cole has urged incoming Chelsea head coach Xabi Alonso to sign two free transfers who will add experience, wisdom and quality to the squad.

The Blues announced earlier this month that former Real Madrid head coach Alonso will take over as manager on July 1 after a chaotic season at Stamford Bridge.

A final day defeat to Sunderland saw Chelsea drop down to tenth in the Premier League table and miss out on a place in Europe altogether.

Chelsea will now have to make sure they get new signings right over the summer, with Cole urging them to sign experienced performers, John Stones and Robert Lewandowski, on free transfers.

When asked about Chelsea’s plans for the summer transfer window, Cole told Football.London: “We don’t know what the finances are.

“So it’s alright saying that we’re going to buy that player and buy that player. We may have to sell players, we don’t know.

“One thing we’re sure we don’t want is wholesale changes because these young players that you had belief in three years ago: they’re still the same players.

“They just need what I’ve been saying for two or three years, where you have experience around them within the group that helps them through games to coach them, whilst on the pitch to give them their wisdom, you know, and build it out that way.

“Even if you’re just selling players, there’s ones that are not going to get near it. That’s not for me to say, that’s for them to work out.

“And then you bring in your John Stones and Robert Lewandowski and players on a free transfer who don’t need to play every minute of every game, but they understand winning, they understand culture and they can still help out in the pitch and do bits.

“The current players need that, they’ve got it within the group, it can’t be from coaches, all the time.

One thing ‘baffles’ Cole about Chelsea

“All the great teams are coached from within their own dressing room and its knowledge and wisdom passed down over the years.

“It just baffles me how people just don’t understand that. But hopefully, they [the Chelsea owners] have read the room and that’s the way they go now.

“If not, if they don’t, then it’ll be all much of the same. Chelsea will be better next year and they’ll probably say we’re on the way up again. But you once you get back up, you’ll always hit the same ceilings.

“When you get to elite level, you need experience, you need wisdom and you need quality.”