Maybe, just maybe, players who were WORLD CLASS and part of Chelsea’s most successful ever times, might actually know what they’re talking about?
Maybe, it’s time to finally listen to the likes of Joe Cole, Frank Lampard, John Terry, and MANY more of us who have been banging this same drum for time.
I know it wont happen, but it’s not going to stop me talking about it, or Joe Cole apparently.
‘It’s really disappointing,’ Cole told TNT Sports after Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat at Atalanta. ‘Chelsea matched them comfortably in the first half and took the lead.
‘But they looked shaky after that and the frailties are clearly there. It’s frustrating.
‘The performances against Barcelona and Chelsea were statements but they’ve followed that up with three below-par performances where the standards haven’t been there.
‘I just keep coming back to it, I feel like there needs to be a bit more experience in the squad to help the team get through these tricky games.
‘The coaches would have told them what to expect tonight and at Elland Road but there’s something about having an experienced player in your team to get you through.
‘Chelsea are just not quite there yet. There’s promise and some great performances but then there’s performances like tonight which drop off.
‘It makes this weekend very, very important because that’s four games without a win now. The Everton game is must-win.’
And the likes of Terry, Lampard, John Obi Mikel, and many others have all said similar things to this over the last few years, like most of us have.
None of us are saying that a young team is bad or wont succeed. A young team is actually a positive for me. But nobody will ever convince me that not adding more experience, more leaders, more winners who have been there and done it, (I’m talking QUALITY experience and not free agents from Fulham or players who I never even fully rated anyway at the time we signed them) would have not put us in a better position than what we are already and if we recruited the right profiles, names, and experienced players, we would already be title challenging, LAST SEASON. I have no doubt.
Why would you not want to speed up your ‘project’ and calm all the noise around it? Makes no sense to me. But it does make sense – because this is how we operate now. The best elite and most experienced players will always cost you more in wages. So this is why we will no longer see this at our club. Sigh.
Whether this squad ever gets there or not is still a debate – I think it will (if we recruit well in the summer). But even if it does get there, I will still always come back to this and say that we would have got there MUCH sooner if we’d signed quality experienced players/leaders along the way to help. Joe Cole is spot on, you need these voices in the dressing room and on the pitch. You need this motivation out there with you as a young player. It’s just common sense at this point. You need a strong spine.
Also, I’m not saying that lack of experience is our only issue. We generally lack elite level players now, we all see that. We also lack physicality and durability. We need more combative players to compete in the Premier League, because the ‘lesser’ sides will beat us with energy, intensity, mentality, and physicality alone, regardless of the apparent difference in quality. So it’s not just about experience.
