Without doubt an excellent article and an uncomfortable read, especially for those of us who always keep our Chelsea glass half full, as opposed to half empty and on the point of being drained of all optimism.Yet this, rather disappointingly, is the writer’s bleak conclusion - unless saving grace intervenes, which he identifies as a hope that ’the club start to make better decisions’ and which, in all honesty and after many a paragraph slating the hierarchy, seems to be little more than an afterthought admission of defeat on his part. A litany of mistakes made by the club is ably and accurately outlined here, but I am nowhere near as pessimistic, preferring instead to accentuate positives that have accrued over a decade during which, by common consent, we haven‘t really performed that badly. Indeed, to illustrate how this article can be easily turned on its head, I’d highlight certain paragraphs as follows:-         

 

“I am by no means suggesting Loftus-Cheek (you can interchange him for Charly Musonda, Kenedy or Bertrand Traoré) is guaranteed to be a world class footballer or even a starter. What I want to see is a commitment to determining what it is we actually have in these talented youngsters. They do not go to Barcelona and outplay them, win the U19s European Cup etc. through luck. These are top players who need a pathway to determining if they can make the grade.”

 

One look at the sheer joy expressed on Roman Abramovich’s face after Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored his first senior goal was enough to convince me that the future of CFC is in good hands, priorities set in more than mere semblance of good order. In short, if his demeanour is anything to go by and contrary to Peter Kay’s unswerving belief in Phoenix Nights, it is youth and not garlic bread that’s the future for Chelsea fans. Such was his delight and caught up in the euphoria myself, I cant help but imagine the finished article, namely a brand new stadium plus recalibrated squad primed to perform proudly in it. Of course, the first part of this mind game is easy enough to envisage, especially with groundwork and graphical genius provided by Boyne and Neilando on this forum, but fast-forwarding to 2019/20 on an ever-ageing front is another, more speculative, matter entirely.

 

“Chelsea are not built to tiki-taka. Chelsea are built to pulverise teams. Trying to play like Barcelona without the very best players stylistically is never going to work in the Premier League. Someone on the board must have realised this by now? We have won trophies in a manner that does not correlate with the personality of the squad they are trying to construct.”

 

“A serious rethink needs to happen concerning the squad and the direction the side is heading. I would prefer a return to something more robust than trying to force a style of play which seems incompatible with the pace and competitiveness of Premier League football.”

 

I think that promoting a return to a more robust style of play is the very last thing we should be doing, for the simple reason it would play into the hands of officialdom and FA alike, both governing bodies having already made it abundantly clear that the slightest Chels transgression will be blown up out of all proportion, no penalty being too great to call, no margin for error too small to wave a yellow card at - why increase the prospect of penalisation by placing the emphasis on such robustness, especially when our Academy players have been trained in the art of tiki-taka type possession football since Day One?

 

Strange though it may seem, I foresee the first Chelsea team to walk out at the new Stamford Bridge being similar to the young, yet already well-established, group of players that dominated domestic football under Fergie at the turn of the century, with only Courtois, Dave and Zouma surviving what will surely be a massive overhaul during the intervening three year period. By this point in time either a youthful, brackish English core captain will have emerged from the Academy ranks - a Colkett, a Kane a Houghton - or we will have opted for an overseas alternative in the rock-ish mould of Kurt. Whatever route is taken, an age span of 23/26yrs for the skipper would be ideal and the makeup of the rest of the squad under his leadership would surely be reflective of the playing-together-for-years style of play we have tried to foster at all our youth development levels. 

 

For example, Charlie Colkett currently arrows long left footed passes like a quarterback to a wide receiver and more often than not the recipient is Tammy Abraham, homing in as if by radar, so it is no real stretch of the imagination to predict a blossoming of this sort of telepathy three years on. Neither would it be fantasy to think of Nathan Ake and Ruben Loftus-Cheek forming a holding midfielder partnership, or Kenedy and Charly Musonda marauding on either wing one moment, then down the centre the next. A twenty-five man squad made up of predominantly present day Under-21 and development squad  talent, playing a passing game, is therefore not beyond the bounds of possibility.  

 

“Chelsea have often thrived in chaos: though, many people have feared the wheels falling off at some point. Riding perfectly within the eye of the storm for nearly ten years seemed unsustainable. Maybe a stringent adherence to Financial Fair Play was the coup de grâce? As Chelsea sought to balance the books the quality in the squad has declined. Many have argued with me in the past whether this was the case, but surely it is irrefutable now? Last season's gargantuan effort with such a small squad has taken its toll. Entering the season with three injury prone strikers was certainly a microcosm of our squad management.”

 

Inevitably, there will be calls for the buying of some world class players to bolster any home grown structure, but the need should not be great and restricted to an essential element. Decline in the quality of the squad is undeniable, but adherence to FFP is not the cause. Poor judgement at the higher end of the marketplace is to blame and, for want of a better phrase, you pay your money and take your choice if you think Jose should have been given a freer rein on transfers, in view of his reticence regarding youth development. In my opinion, that reticence probably cost him his job and any dressing room unrest that existed was symptomatic of the lack of belief being shown in him at boardroom level over the purchase of players.  

 

“Hopefully going forward the club know what it wants to be. Without direction and the unerring persistence of a Barcajax model who knows what the future holds.”

 

Whatever a ‘Barcajax model’ is, it most certainly isn’t based on robustness of play or Simeone-style management, nor is it likely to flourish from the outset on wet and windy nights in Stoke. But my contention is that this model has been Roman’s work in progress for the last decade and to dispense with it now, with an Academy choc full of thematic talent, would be pure folly. Admittedly, a likeminded and committed manager is needed at the helm and it seems increasingly unlikely it will be ‘the man’ himself, Pep Guardiola. However, is that in itself any reason to give up on the dream? After all, there must be other candidates out there who would be only too willing to take on the task in clear and present circumstances that, if the glass half empty brigade are to be believed, can only get better.

.    

Edited January 19, 201610 yr by Dorset

You're a quality poster Dorset, and I do agree with points you make. I wish I had more time to react to your post, sadly though, I don't.

 

or example, Charlie Colkett currently arrows long left footed passes like a quarterback to a wide receiver and more often than not the recipient is Tammy Abraham, homing in as if by radar, so it is no real stretch of the imagination to predict a blossoming of this sort of telepathy three years on. Neither would it be fantasy to think of Nathan Ake and Ruben Loftus-Cheek forming a holding midfielder partnership, or Kenedy and Charly Musonda marauding on either wing one moment, then down the centre the next. A twenty-five man squad made up of predominantly present day Under-21 and development squad  talent, playing a passing game, is therefore not beyond the bounds of possibility.

 

I can't for the life of mee see this happening. Our youth players have never been able to get a serious look in, not even in these desperate times. I for one believe we will bounce back soon by adding quality to our side. But adding quality will go along with even less chances for our prospects. I had hope that we would have stability and a long term manager in Mourinho, who would work to find a good mix between senior players and youth, but that dream flew out the window. The only way I see a youth player break through is if he has the quality of either Messi or Ronaldo. Untill then it will require a stream for Vitesse to see any of them get some first team action. 

I think we should have core group of 16 players the best we can buy and then the rest of the squad should be made up with youth players, that we actively push appearances on.

Good read. A very biased view of the youth but that seems to be the general sentiment on the matter.

We need to buy a few players km this window to get us through

I know I tend to have a positive outlook and like Dorset I don't think it would be a good idea to regress to our old footballing ideology as for the last 5-6 years we have been slowly building towards this new more "attractive" style of football, for which we have been acquiring players who we think suit a high line, press hard and play an intense passing football and we now the majority of our squad baring a few of the older boys still at the club can and like to play this way. It also one of the younger squads in the league which are learning how to play this style of football together and they have proved they can, you just have to go back to go back to the first half of last season to see how effective they can be playing like this.  

we currently have the 7th youngest squad in the league and here is a brief comparison against both Arsenal's and City's
Squad age(starting 11); Chelsea-26.5(26.7), Man City-28.2(28.7), Arsenal-27.3(27.5), showing we do have youth on our side (2 years on city 1 on Arsenal)
but lets look at this in a bit more depth. Whilst working of the assumption of players peak age by position being between these ages -GK; 30-34 - CB; 28-31 - FB; 26-29 -CDM; 28-31 - CM; 27-30 - FW; 26-28.

(key; colour of the players name corresponds to whether they fit the desired playing style, and colour of their age relates to which side of their peak they are) 
GK's; Courtois (23) , Begovic (28).
CB's key attribute for a high line pace and positioning; Terry (35), Cahill (30), Zouma (21).
FB's key attributes pace, tackling, work rate; Azpilicueta (26), Baba (21), Ivanovic (31).
CDM's Positioning and Composure; Matic (27), Mikel (28).
CM's Work rate, passing and defensive astuteness; Fabregas (28), Ramires (28), RLC (19), Oscar (24).
Winger's Work rate, dribbling, passing/crossing; Hazard (25), Willian (27), Pedro (28), Kenedy (19).
Striker's Finishing, movement, ball control, work rate; Costa (27), Remy (29), Falcao (29), Bamford (22), Traore (20).

This shows that the core of the squad still have time before they crest there peak and that it has been design to develop towards this new style of play and is still despite this seasons performances full of quality.

I have also previously mentioned how our loan army puts us in good stead for the future and whether you believe any of these will make it here or not, it still provides as very large source of financial protection as it means we have over £200m worth of assets which are already deemed surplus to requirement and this is must likely a massive under estimate. They also provide bargaining chips for transfer negotiations which can be a massive boost in this rather convoluted transfer arena.

Which leaves me to believe our long term Financial future is pretty secure. And as we have seen throughout footballing history a strong financial position is essential for success and longevity near the top. This will be even further boosted by the new Stadium we will hopefully move into.

Also previously stated we are producing some of the most talented youngster in World and this can only be a good thing, obviously it is better if they can make it into our first team but even if they don't it again provides for a very stable financial footing. Also this set of very talented youngsters has a strong British core something we all want to see.      

Bamford ex England u21,
RLC, Baker, Chalobah, Swift, Aina and Solanke current England U21s 
Todd Kane, Beeney, Colkett ex England u19's
Brown, clarke-salter, Kiwomya, Abraham Current England u19;s
This isn't too mention the countless lower age groups represented currently and previously by the squad, and other nationalities youth teams.

This is why I believe the future looks bright but obviously there are many other factors and if we never fully embrace the footballing philosophy our owner desires we will have problems consistently performing it also means we will have to find the right manager to fit this style of football which Mourinho certainly was not.

I also think some of the ridicule and slagging of towards our transfer policy has been a bit harsh but I have talked about this before and the post is getting rather long so I will leave it there.
 

Edited January 19, 201610 yr by PedroMendez

I forecast that most of our points will come from away matches, as the expectancy and pressure of playing away, is far less than at home.

We as fans need to do our bit to help our team by making far more noise at Stamford bridge for all games, not just the big ones.

It's pretty obvious that our wage bill needs to be reduced, and that's why we ain't gonna buy any big name players unless we sell big.

Personally I would rather try and keep Hazard and sell 6 other lower valued loaned or squad bench players. But sadly I think if we continue in our present way, and do not start winning, then the powers that be at cfc will start panicking and Hazard will be sold.

Strange how just 6 months ago we were champions, with Mourinho in charge and the future was looking great. Now we could be looking at Liverpool or Leeds style fall from grace.

 

Crazy.

indeed, lets hope that its a yo yo affect and that in a years time we are back up there

what will hurt me the most will be them horrid gooners over taking us