The waves in the Chelsea sea have now got so big that Clearlake and the sporting directors are about to get dunked on.
The fans have had enough. Their voices are getting louder. Protests are being planned. Anti-ownership songs are being sung at games. The tide has turned on them, and they’re about to get very wet.
So, who would you trust more to build a Premier League squad, former Chelsea players Joe Cole and Frank Lampard? Or former head scouts turned sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart?
It’s such an easy question that, isn’t it?
I’m going for the two former professional football players who actually have experience playing at elite levels and have both been part of some very successful football teams and have seen first hand what it needed for success. Both players have been young players coming through the ranks, knowing the importance of having experienced heads around them in training, and on the pitch. Both players know the importance of having balance in a squad, having role models, leaders, and motivators challenging them, taking them under their wings, and guiding them on the pitch as they make a massive jump and transition into playing regular senior football.
But what about Winstanley and Stewart? We were told they are ‘experts’ and the ‘best in class’ no?
Like I’ve said before, I think we can credit them for being good scouts, they’ve certainly spotted some cheap gems who look like good signings for us and previous clubs they have been at. I’d probably back them to be head scouts for sure. But being in charge of a squad build at one of the biggest clubs in the world that has had SO much recent success, is probably a bit of a stretch at the very least! It’s a HUGE jump that they should never have been handed.
How does Winstanley get such a big promotion from being Head of Scouting at Brighton to being put in charge of recruitment overall and transfer negotiations at Chelsea FC? Just read that again and truly deep it. It’s absolutely mental. Did he lie on his CV do you reckon!?
Before that, he was the Match Analyst at Derby, and the Performance Manager at Wigan. You can not make this up! It’s literally just like our player recruitment, we went for SDs with some promise rather than proven experience.
What about Stewart then? Surely he’s the one with the experience?
Yes, he actually is. Stewart had at least been a Technical Director at Monaco for a decent chunk of time. However, that is the same title Chelsea gave Petr Cech, and we all know what little power he had at the club. It’s still a MASSIVE jump to go from that to being in charge of recruitment and negotiations at a club like Chelsea. Stewart’s roles before that was mainly Head of Scouting, but he does have decent experience doing that. As I keep saying, this is their calling, they are decent scouts, not Directors of Football who are solely in charge of recruitment for one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Is that really, best in class?
Neither Cole or Lampard have had any experience at all in scouting or recruitment. But they have actually played the damn game. This for me is SO much more important. This is why I’d be keen to see an ex-player as our Director of Football when we eventually (hopefully) replace the SDs. Some of the best DOFs used to play at a high level, and you can see why they retire into this role after playing.
I’d still fully trust Cole and Lampard to build our squad overt the SDs. I mean, which clubs did Stewart and Winstanley ever play for? Oh, they never played.
I’m not saying it is the be all and end all to have played the game to be able to be in a DOF role, absolutely not. It’s like some of the best managers in history never actually played. But for me, it certainly helps and does make a key difference. They use their experience of being a player, and that is key.
Look at this quote from Cole below and tell me he is wrong, I dare you. He’s absolutely spot on here, and the owners need to look at this quote long and hard and take action.
Joe Cole:
“I’ve been saying it from the start of this methodology, where you buy young players. They’re assets, you build them up, yes, and they’re going to improve. You can get all the data in your world, what a young player at 21 that will predict he will be when he’s 24 but it’s a process that goes from what 21 to 24 where he has to learn.
“They’ll probably play 200 games, if he’s lucky, and in every one of them games, there’ll be moments to learn from experienced players around him. And I know from my experience, what I learned from playing with experienced players as a young man was invaluable, that allowed me to become the player I was, and it was in moments like games like these, when you’re digging in, and you need experienced players around you, and Chelsea going for a spell like that.
“I’ve said it from the start. You have to have experienced players on the pitch with these players. You can have all the coaches in the world, but the lessons are learned by your teammates teaching you, nurturing you for a situation. So these players that Chelsea expect to be there in three, four years time, they might well be but I tell you what they’ll be a lot quicker there if you put experienced players in that team and trust mr you would have more points, and they will be in a better position on the pitch.”
He’s literally telling you that playing alongside experienced players allowed him to become the player he was – and he was some player. He’s not the only pro to say this, I’m sure they will all have their own versions of this. Bloody listen to them!
And back in 2024, Lampard said something very similar.
The words about youngsters sitting on the bench or in training and watching and learning from the likes of Didier Drogba and John Terry is huge. It’s SO important and should never be overlooked, like these Chelsea owners and SDs are doing right now.
So my last message to the owners, for today at least, is listen to the REAL experts of the game, legends of the game like Lampard and Cole. Because in this sense, speaking from experience, they really know what they’re talking about.
