Clayton Beerman lends us some perspective and hope for the new season…
Can you imagine no access to the internet? Where would your Chelsea fix come from? I’ve recently been on holiday and not wishing to be completely extorted in paying for Wi-Fi I spent the vast majority of a 2 week holiday bereft of Chelsea news. Now it is of course fair to say that apart from the results from friendlies there has not actually been any news. Just the normal nonsense and speculation the majority of which is complete guff.
Since returning home last weekend I had the ultimate couch potato day on Sunday. I was pretty knackered after the trek home the previous day and so my seat on the sofa beckoned. A full days cricket; part of the community shield and even 10 minutes of watching poor old RDM losing his first game in charge, not to mention the Olympics and the horrendous crash in the woman’s road race. Yes, I put in the hours.
What it also included was following the twitter meltdown during our win ( not loss) against Bremen. To be fair the when reading the team sheet to see last seasons “failures” with only Kante added was slightly disheartening. The reason being that after a month with the squad our manager thinks that the best back four is the one that was so poor last season. The feeling being that in his last pre-season friendly he would pick a team as close to the starting 11 against West Ham as possible.
It is hard to believe that a manager of the quality of Conte has not asked for defenders. He has tried Aina which is great but the has presumably not done enough to displace Branna. I accept there is a finite number of players available in the world and sometimes managers need to manage what they have but a back four that was patently not good enough last season are a year older and slower and there is a real fear that we will struggle again this season if there is no change. To rely on Kurt being as good or if not better than he was on his return is a big gamble and patently not fair on him.
It is hard to know what the plan is or indeed if there is a plan in terms of revitalising the squad. One would have thought , prior to his arrival, Conte would have given a list of players he would like at the club. The signing of Batshuayi was a surprise and he’s a bit of a “wait and see” signing. I’d be surprised if he was signed on his Euro appearances but stranger things have happened. Then followed the signing of Kante. If he lives up to last season this is a brilliant addition.
The anticipation for the new season had started to grow; who would be next in……well that signing was nearly 4 weeks ago and subsequently nothing. We have had all the horror stories about Lukaku which on the basis we haven’t yet made a bid for him must have been generated by his agent and frankly nothing else.
When you look around however apart from in Manchester there has not been a huge amount going on in terms of transfer activity. With us however I sense it is the frustration of knowing where we were and having let everyone else catch up and in certain circumstances overtake us. There is also annoyance, certainly in my mind, of letting two really good left backs go. People were critical of Cesar’s performances at right back towards the end of last season but with him at right back and either Bertrand or Luis at left back, things would be markedly improved. In addition the loaning of Ake makes no sense. Surely a better option, albeit in reserve than Hector. It is inconceivable that the board have let this happen but we are where we are and have to get on with it. There is no divine right to be successful and we should support whoever is in a blue shirt but we are entitled to question the clubs intentions.
So Sunday was the first sight for me of Jose as the new Manchester United manager. I expected it to “hurt” more than it did. We all know that he will succeed and we can see at once a board that
has completely backed him in the transfer window. He has got in the players he wants and it’s hard to know why that was so difficult for our board after he rewarded them with the league. We all know the Pogba fee is insane but the club have gone out and bought him. The Baily purchase for me has the look of a Gallas type buy. He’ll take a while to deal with the madness of the Premier League but he looks solid and one presumes a Jose find/purchase. Was he someone Jose asked for last season, we’ll never know. The treatment of Mata was classic Jose. The call for Juan to return is nonsense. We would get fleeced for a player who in essence we do not need, actually that sounds just like the purchase we would make!
So what are my hopes and thoughts for the season? Principally I am looking for stability and building a new team. Last season was so bad; a season of consolidation should be the minimum. The lack of European football whilst upsetting should mean that we can give top four a real go but with the caveat that our manager must be allowed to get on with it and get the players he needs. Recent history dictates that that is unlikely but we can but hope. There is cause for optimism, Hazard is fit both physically and it appears mentally and the marmite that is Oscar looks to have had a good preseason. There has been a healthy integration of youth and maybe one or two will join the squad. The talk of a disgruntled Costa continues but I suspect he will stay unless Lukaku comes back. He certainly looks fitter than he did last season.
Say this quietly because I know it doesn’t fit in with the general malaise but we still have some fairly decent players. It is fair to say that Courtois, Hazard, Kante, Azpilicueta, Willian, Costa ,Zouma and Terry would all get in most of the other Premier League teams and that is eight players and so whilst we do need to rebuild we still have the core of a decent side and a terrific and committed manager.
So let’s raise the roof on Monday night ( WTF for the season opener) and show Signor Conte what we are all about.
Clayton Beerman
On Twitter: @goalie59
Author of Palpable Discord: A season of drama and dissent at Chelsea- Available through Gate 17 Publishing or via Amazon
