The second match between Chelsea and Man City was marked to be the last game that Rafa Benitez had with the Chelsea team. And now that we can give him our heartfelt farewell and say thanks for his efforts, a new beginning awaits for us. And if reports all around are to be believed, Jose Mourinho is going to be the one creating the new ‘special’ era for the club. Ofcourse it is an exciting moment for every Chelsea fan. The man who had won over our hearts in the past is now probably coming back to lead us once more. It is all like a written script, a fairytale, a classic romantic movie, lovers could move as far from each other, but by the climax, they will be together. Such is the case between Chelsea FC and Jose Mourinho. Ok ok, now it’s getting a little too dreamy, let’s get back to the important thing.
Chelsea are always known to build or rather buy a squad of superstars, we are not known to be the ones developing superstars. Our greatest achievement would obviously be John Terry, who is probably seen as one of the best centre back the game as ever seen, and we often brag about our fringe players like Joshua McEachran, Chalobah, Bertrand, Islam Feruz, etc. and the ones who made their presence known outside Chelsea FC, like Borini, Stoch and ofcourse Benfica star Nemanja Matic (who cannot technically be called as our youth product, but still) We often fail to provide sufficient chances to the young guns, and often see them bloom elsewhere. And I, speaking for myself, don’t want to see Chelsea FC as a team who buys stars, like we are used to doing, and rather would love to see a few of our fringe players get the chance they deserve at Chelsea FC. I don’t want another cash spilling transfer window for Chelsea FC.
Weaknesses of the current team:
1) Back Up for Petr Cech
2) Back Up for Right Back
3) Back Up for Ashley Cole
4) Back Up for Centre Backs
5) Player competing for role of CM
6) Striker
Solution? I’d say we can solve each problem with the players we still have with us. Not a penny more to be spent.
1) Okay, I don’t need to say much about this role. And more precisely, I shouldn’t probably term this player even as a backup anymore. He is there to compete with Mr. Safety Gloves for the position as the number one goalkeeper at the club. Yes, I am talking about Thibaut Courtois. After having two brilliant seasons for Atletico Madrid, and also beating his parent club in the Super Cup, Thibaut has already become a fan favorite at Chelsea FC. He is tall, quick, agile, and most noticeably, has a good distribution, just like Big Pete. I would love to see the both compete for the role of the number one goalkeeper at the club, and the young man can even learn from the man who is considered to be among the best in the business. Proper rotation among the both will keep both of them quite happy and there are a hell lot of games for them to divide amongst themselves easily. Matej Delac/ Blackman could start afew games in the league cup or some not so challenging games.
2) At Right Back, Azpilicueta is surely going to continue starting for the club in the next season too. Branislav Ivanovic can compete with him and also share games with the Spaniard which would keep both of them fresh. Yes, Paulo Ferierra might not be at the club as our emergency backup, but we also have a young Wallace who was purchased last season, to maybe compete with the both, unless ofcourse he is sent out on loan. In that case, Todd Kane could step up to compete for places.
3) Ashley Cole might possibly be playing his last season for Chelsea FC, and it is better to find the heir to his position as soon as possible. All of us would love to see Chelsea Fan – Southhampton star Luke Shaw at the club, but as I said, I’l provide remedies without costing an extra penny for us. Ryan Bertrand has been decent enough whenever Ashley was missing from the first team, but for me, Patrick Van AanHolt is slightly better at the position. We could keep both at the club, dividing games among the three, Ashley, Ryan and Patrick.
4) I wouldn’t say we lack players for centre back, but we have been leaking a hell lot of goals and we might as well search among our players if there is anyone capable to stabilizing the defense. Kenneth Omeruo has been a stand out player for his loan-club Den Haag. He is composed, solid and fearless to put in challenges and could prove to be quite good for Chelsea even at the tender age of 19.
Another name that comes into my mind is Tomas Kalas. I think he could be what Varane had been for Mourinho at Real Madrid. He is fabulous talent and will be back at the club by 30th of June from his loan spell.
We also have Nathan Chalobah, who would be raring to win over the hearts of the Chelsea faithful after completing a successful spell at Watford under the guidance of Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola.
5) For CM, we have a returning Michae Essien and a back to fitness Romeu Oriol to start with. If Essien gets his form back, I need not say, but there are only few who are better than what he does in the middle of the park. Romeu is also very impressive, and having the Barcelona sense of sound passing within his blueprint, he can be a very good option to compete with Mikel, Ramires, Lampard and David Luiz for the position of CM.
We also have Joshua McEachran who must be finally waiting for a chance to prove his worth to the team, and also an impressive George Saville returning from loan on 4th of May from Millwall.
6) We already have Torres and Ba competing for the same starting spot. Chelsea are expected to be playing a 4-5-1 again the next season, and unless either of them are going to have a down form that Torres had in the beginning, we don’t have to worry much. Romelu Lukaku is another candidate for the spot, and for me, if he keeps the attitude he had at West Brom he could even own the lone striker spot over both Torres and Ba. And in dire case of rotation, we could even use Eden Hazard or our young Lucas Piazon as our ‘false 9.’
And with the return of Kevin De Bruyne from Werder Bremen, hoping that he isn’t sold off, we have tremendous talent in the midfield who are both exciting and glamorous as well as effective. Marko Marin might have to leave the club on loan to reclaim his form, that every Chelsea fan longs to witness him showing off, in the Blue Jersey someday ofcourse.
There are loads and loads of players in our youth academy who deserves a chance to prove themselves. I couldn’t even get to start with how much players like Milan Lalkovic, Billy Clifford, Islam Feruz and many others deserve to get a chance over the so rumored new signings of ours, and I am sure we all know ourselves that there might be a glamour of having a world class player coming in from another team for more than 30-40m (eg. Modric, whom we are latest linked to), but the joy that we never had is to witness the development of a young star from the academy to stardom; we will surely take more pride in the latter case I am sure.
Thank You for taking your time out to read this article, I hope you liked it. Agree or not, do leave your views and opinions in the comments section below, I’d love to hear from you.
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Cheers!
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