It’s time to put Chelsea as a club first.
By this, I basically mean a gutting of this squad of players. A squad that has become tired, past their sell by dates, uninspiring, and severely lacking quality.
I think our biggest problem right now and why we have been struggling year after year for the last three or four, is quite simply, the lack of quality and technical ability that we have in our squad. We can talk tactics, we can talk coaching, we can talk managers, and we can talk substitutions, but all of that for me takes a firm backseat to the simple issue that our squad is just not good enough and it hasn’t been for some time.
I can genuinely count on one hand when asked which players I would keep in this current squad if given the chance to sell them all, genuinely. And that there lies the problem.
The players are the problem. Not only do they lack mentality, intensity, and full effort game by game, they also really lack quality, and that is the bottom line.
If we really want to place ourselves back challenging at the top again, then we need to invest heavily in the squad still and we need to be completely cut-throat with it. I don’t care about losing ‘experienced’ players, because whilst they might bring a small bit of leadership, they do not bring the quality or consistency. They also don’t even bring the actual leadership needed, and by leadership I am talking John Terry and Didier Drogba leadership, not just someone who has ‘played a lot of games.’
That doesn’t wash with me. There is no spine in this team, no fight. Whilst they might want to fight each other and argue after games, that is not the kind of leadership we need. We need a togetherness and a respect for each other. The kind of respect that only players like Terry could ever demand and get. Someone in the dressing room to not just shout without direction and fire insults and blame, but to do a motivational speech and get players up for it, get players believing in themselves and believing in their ability.
I maintain that it is the players and lack of quality that keeps us where we are right now, fighting once again just for a top four spot. Believe me, I have major doubts that we will even get anywhere near that right now.
If this is truly the long-term project, then we need to revamp this squad FULLY. We need to SELL many of these players who are not good enough and sign suitable replacements who don’t just bring needed quality and the attributes that we need, but also the mindset, mentality, and personalities that we need to bring back into this squad, something we have desperately missed for some time.
If we are serious about catching the likes of City etc, then we need to see the same changes that we have seen from top to bottom on the operational side of the club, to the actual squad of players. Only then will we really start to see differences on the pitch. You cannot pass a lemon off as an orange. We cannot keep trying to paper over the cracks of the true elephant in the room – our squad just not being anywhere near good enough.
