Why Chelsea have made Marco Palestra the first signing under Xabi Alonso

Football writer Ben McAleer explains why Chelsea's first summer signing Marco Palestra can help new manager Xabi Alonso to implement his favoured tactics.

Milan has produced a number of greats, both past and present. Giuseppe Meazza, Paolo Maldini and Federico Dimarco all hail from the northern Italian city. Buccinasco, a commune situated just south of the fashion capital, isn’t quite so commonly known, but that could soon change, with 21-year-old Marco Palestra joining Chelsea on a contract until 2033.

Palestra was born in March 2005. The Italian joined local side GS Assago at the age of five before moving to Internazionale Milano for a brief stint in 2014. A year later, he moved to Atalanta. However, it was further south that Palestra made a name for himself.

The 21-year-old spent last season on loan with Cagliari, and it was there where Palestra truly shot to prominence.

Cagliari endured a so-so Serie A campaign, finishing 14th, but Palestra was their star performer at both full-back and wing-back.

Inter were keen to bring him back to the San Siro, and for a period it looked as though the Nerazzurri would win the race to re-sign the Italy international, but Chelsea have swooped to sign an archetypal modern-day full-back.

Style of play

With many managers preferring their attacking wide players to cut inside from the flanks, full-backs can have plenty of space to overlap and stretch the play.

This is where Palestra’s best quality comes into play and, because he is just as capable with his right foot as he is on his left, he can play on either side.

“He has a dribbling ability few have. A right-footed player carrying the ball with his left means you never understand which way he can go,” Francesco Modesto, Palestra’s former coach for Atalanta’s development team, once said of the player.

Palestra was the fastest player in Serie A last season, with an average top speed of 27.96 km/h, and he completed the second-most dribbles, with 70, only behind Juventus star Kenan Yildiz's 78.

Crucially, Palestra has an end product too when he breaks down the flank. His 31 chances created from open play ranked second for Cagliari in Italy’s top tier last season, while his 27 accurate crosses, excluding corners, were the ninth-most in the league. He finished the campaign with four assists, a solid return for a team who only scored 40 goals.

“He seems like a player built on the PlayStation,” Cagliari head coach Fabio Pisacane said of the Italian.

Chelsea have signed a number of young talents in recent seasons, and Palestra can lay claim to being the real deal.

How will Alonso use him?

Palestra could most obviously be seen as a replacement for left-back Marc Cucurella, who has just left Chelsea to join Real Madrid.

But it is notable that the Italian is the first signing of the Xabi Alonso era, with the former Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid boss officially taking over at Stamford Bridge on 1 July. Palestra’s arrival suggests Alonso is going to implement a similar game plan to the one that helped Leverkusen to a first ever Bundesliga title in 2023/24.

The Italian is evidently looking forward to playing under his new manager.

"I feel a lot of energy from him," he told Chelsea's official website. "Also, he is one of the best managers in the world [as you can see when] he won at Bayer Leverkusen. It’s important for me to have Xabi Alonso as the manager."

Alonso’s Leverkusen side were built on a three-man defence. Ahead of them, the wing-backs - Jeremie Frimpong, now of Liverpool, and Alejandro Grimaldo - were the key components for the German giants.

Frimpong was the runner, who stretched the play with lung-bursting sprints. Grimaldo acted as the playmaker, ranking third in the Bundesliga for chances created, with 73, in Alonso’s third and final season at the helm.

With Reece James on the books, Chelsea have one of the best attacking full-backs in the Premier League, and he is also comfortable sliding into central midfield. So it stands to reason that Alonso would view the pacy Palestra as the one to play the Frimpong role.

But crucially, Palestra also has that final delivery that means Alonso can switch up who plays which wing-back role - especially since Palestra can play on either flank.

Combined with the knowhow that comes from operating at both full-back and wing-back, Palestra offers great flexibility which will allow Alonso to change his system both before and during matches.

Room for improvement

At just 21 years of age, Palestra is of course still developing, and there is room for improvement with his distribution, given his 85.1 per cent pass success rate. But interestingly, Frimpong and Grimaldo were also not the most effective passers during Alonso’s time at Leverkusen.

Palestra also managed only one goal from 29 efforts in the 2025/26 Serie A season. Of the 122 players to fire off at least 25 shots and score at least once, his conversion rate of 3.4 per cent was the sixth-lowest in the division.

But he has plenty of time to improve these numbers and, with Alonso likely to implement a three-man backline, Palestra should prove a fine fit in either wing-back role.

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