Chelsea legend tells Xabi Alonso to sign £50million England star after World Cup

Xabi Alonso is the new man in charge at Chelsea (Picture: Getty)

Chelsea legend Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has advised Xabi Alonso to add one of England ’s most experienced World Cup stars to his youthful squad this summer.

The Spaniard was unveiled as Liam Rosenior ’s permanent successor on Monday and was immediately met with a flurry off transfer related questions .

Chelsea finished in mid-table last season following a chaotic campaign that saw Enzo Maresca depart in January and his replacement, Liam Rosenior, failing last more than four months in the hotseat.

Despite their struggles and a lack of European football, Chelsea were still able to entice one of Europe’s mostly highly rated young coaches in Alonso to Stamford Bridge.

In a pointed change of direction and strategy, the former Liverpool midfielder was given the title of manager upon his appointment and he is expected to wield greater influence when it comes to identifying summer targets.

Indeed, Alonso was the driving force behind Chelsea’s bold move to sign Granit Xhaka earlier this month in a bid to add more knowhow to a team that has relied on up and coming talent over the past few years.

Xhaka has, for the time being at least, pledged his future to Sunderland but Hasselbaink has backed the move to add greater experience to the ranks.

Xabi Alonso has taken charge of his first Chelsea training session (Picture: Getty)

To that end, the former Chelsea striker has suggested that John Stones, without a club since bringing the curtain down on a trophy-laden decade at Mancehster City, would represent a perfect addition.

‘I would love to see him (Alonso) go and get (John) Stones, who is a free agent,’ Hasselbaink told WhoScored .

‘Everybody will say, “Oh, but he’s injured a lot.” I think this year he will be a very good buy for Chelsea because Chelsea doesn’t play in the Champions League or in Europe, so it’s from Saturday to Saturday.

‘He will have more rest, and he brings a lot of experience as well. So he can at least play 30 matches.’

John Stones is a free agent having left Man City prior to the World Cup (Picture: Getty)

Liam Delap, meanwhile, represents one of the young players who has floundered at Chelsea having appeared a shrewd signing following his arrival from Ipswich last summer.

Hasselbaink believes all is not lost for a player who suffered a serious hamstring injury during one of his early appearances and failed to find any sort of form once he recovered full fitness.

‘He needs football,’ said Hasselbaink. ‘He cannot have another season like he had last season at Chelsea. And if that means he needs to go out on loan or whatsoever, he needs to do that because he is too young to sit on the bench.

Liam Delap struggled at Chelsea last season following his move from Ipswich (Picture: Getty)

‘He needs to kickstart his career again, score goals, and get that feeling again because every time he played for Chelsea, it felt a little bit like he was up against it.

‘Even though I think that he’s a very good player, and even though I think he can become a top-four club kind of striker, he needs games.”