Opinions naturally vary, but personally I find our challenge for a top 4 finish to be for the most part, 'White Noise'.
Of course it would be good to have CL football next season, but I believe there is a much more exciting story unfolding at Chelsea and that in the season after next, we will start to see the rewards.
Lampard is a novice manager and he is making mistakes, just like our young players that are novice to the PL this season. Criticism is fair, but I urge fans to also consider the context.
Not only did we lose our best player, have a transfer ban and appoint a novice manager. We have also had one of the worst seasons I can remember for injuries.
But....
Mason Mount, Callum Hudson Odoi, Reece James, Billy Gilmour,Tammy Abraham, RLC, Pullisic, Ziyech, Kovacic (Chelsea player of the season imo) Tomori etc
Its frankly an amazing group of young talent that as far as I am aware no other PL club has. The oldest player from that group is Ziyech at 26 years old.
We are blessed with a core group of young players that backed with the right signings in the next two summer windows could be part of an amazing team, developed by Lampard and Morris.
The longer term picture is so exciting for this club and personally well worth the growing pains of manager mistakes and possible short term failure to finish top 4.
Be patient and we could well be about to enjoy a new and sustained title challenging era.
The bigger picture
posted on 6/3/20
If we get top 4 with the amount of injuries we’ve had it will be a remarkable achievement. Up there with some cup wins with our top squads.
posted on 7/3/20
100% agree
The future is potentially incredible
posted on 7/3/20
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 7/3/20
One
soccer?lol.
posted on 7/3/20
Fully agree with this article Biggish. Almost none us thought we'd get top four going into the season and for good reason. Those reasons still apply and if we do manage to get a CL spot this season then we've done very well all things considered.
Regardless we need to look beyond this season as to what is actually unfolding here with an exciting new generation of players that if handled correctly could emerge into a squad that competes with the very best. And that is what we all want here - a squad that once again allows us to genuinely compete for both the PL and CL.
It won't happen overnight but it can happen if the club shows enough patience and brings in the right top players to add to the young players already here. Ziyech is a very good start but we need more of that quality coming in from now on.
posted on 7/3/20
I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment of the piece though. We’ve got half a squad worth of quality academy players - local lads, being coached by a club Legend who’s not afraid to use them. I’ll take that any day over the alternate reality Chelsea featuring Salah & De Bruyne.
---------------------------------------------------
In that alternate reality I feel we'd need Guardiola or Klopp as manager to reap the full benefits of both players. KDB probably would've been a success to some degree regardless, but Salah (IMO) is a beneficiary of excellent management.
The alternate reality where Roman gets Guardiola is interesting to think about, and the fantasy changes depending whether he gets him in 2013 or 2016. Would we have backed him? Would we as fans have accepted him? Would he of been successful or gone down as the ultimate regret cos we stupidly sacked him prematurely? (getting him in 2013, quite likely scenario tbh).
posted on 8/3/20
Good article Biggish.
posted on 8/3/20
Good article,
I for one have been very critical of losing an 11point gap for cl qualification, but as you mentioned it's all a learning process mistakes are expected and will be learnt from, hopefully we continue building and adding the right players to suit our way of playing, finally it looks like we are building towards a big future
posted on 9/3/20
I am really excited for what this season is promising to lead to, provided our Board/Owner hold their nerves and back Super Frank.
posted on 9/3/20
Tell this knucklehead to scram ^