Chelsea Matters: After The Party

As I watched Chelsea’s title celebrations on Friday night it was with one thought nagging me – how many of those ecstatic people will be with us next season? It’s been a tremendous first season under Antonio Conte who revived a disillusioned team back to their former greatness but next season will be a different challenge altogether. The team he inherited was already a winning side, they had been before and they are now again – they just needed to be reminded of that. Conte added very little in the way of playing staff. N’Golo Kante had the biggest impact and the former Leicester City player is a contender for our Player of the Season. Marcos Alonso has also added a new dimension on the left flank as both he and Victor Moses on the right flourished under Conte’s new 3-4-3 formation. Ironically it was the rookie who contributed the least over the season, Michy Batshuayi, that scored the goal that clinched the title. As the players and staff danced on the Hawthorns pitch in front of the adoring away fans though I looked through them and wondered who would be gone by the time the first competitive ball of the new season is kicked in August.

It's not just the players though as even Conte is rumoured to be wanted by Inter Milan to be the man to topple Juventus from their Serie A perch. Diego Costa has been touted for a move to join Oscar and John Obi Mikel in China since the last transfer window and Jose Mourinho reportedly wants Willian for Manchester United next season. Even our prize asset Eden Hazard is not without suitors as Real Madrid could break the bank to land his signature. Those are just the main rumours now but it is concerning when this is a team we need to build upon and not dismantle. Of course, we already know that John Terry is leaving with Bournemouth the current favourites to land him. Although Chelsea have been brilliant this season there were some factors working in our favour, not least of all that our failure in 2015/16 left us without European competition and therefore fitter than our rivals on most weekends. We’ve also been very lucky with injuries and have been able to use thirteen players to start across eleven positions for most of the season with Willian and Pedro sharing the right-side attack role and Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic taking turns playing in midfield with Kante depending on the opposition.

If Conte left for Inter Milan it would be a huge blow in my opinion. After Mourinho’s first stint at the club we’ve had too many journeyman managers and in Conte I see someone who can build a real legacy at the club. I just hope he sees it the same way too. Looking at the passion he has for the team and the way he celebrates with the players, he treats them like family. I think if anything makes him stay it will be that he still hasn’t tackled the Champions League with this team and if he left now it would be unfinished business. The Premier League is a far better league than Serie A and to me even a big club like Inter Milan would currently be a step down. If he did go the only man I’d want to replace him would be Mourinho……. I’m joking, I’m joking!! It would be Diego Simeone. When we were looking at the candidates to replace Mourinho it was the former Argentina international that was my first choice so he would still be top of my list.

The biggest loss on the pitch would be Hazard. I mentioned that Kante is a contender for Player of the Season and rightly so but my vote has gone for the Belgian wing wizard. This season he has been better than ever now that he has a manager who has set him free to shine and not shackled him as a secondary left back like Mourinho did. That goal against Arsenal (goal of the season surely) was Eden at his brilliant best and no amount of money could be enough to buy a player to replace him except for Neymar. I know Conte is rumoured to want Alvaro Morata to lead Chelsea’s attack next season and if so Real may offer him as part of a player plus cash deal in the summer but losing Hazard the way he has been this season could potentially spell disaster.

Diego Costa has long been one of my most disliked players at Chelsea with his temperament dividing the opinion of fans as much as the departure of Mourinho did. Many love him for his passion and feel that his fighting and antics are great for winding up opposition defenders. Personally, I feel it has no place in football. I’m not saying the sport should be all gentlemanly but Costa goes over the line too often and too far. I actually thought Conte had worked miracles and reigned him in, tamed the beast, as he was well behaved from around the time we changed formation and went on our winning streak until January. Since then though he’s returned to form, not as bad maybe but I’d still rather have a striker who gets on with the job of playing football and not fighting footballers. For that reason, I’ll be happy to see Costa leave in the summer.

So that’s one player I definitely want to stay and one I certainly want to go which brings me to Willian. I’m more in the ‘stay’ camp that’s for sure as he’s still a great player and was far and away our best in the 2015/16 season but Pedro has outclassed him this season. When it comes to tackling European as well as domestic honours next season though we will need a large squad of quality players. We may fill some of those spots with returning loanees like Bertrand Traore, Andreas Christensen and Baba Rahman but finding players that can make a difference like Hazard, Pedro and Willian is difficult and not something you burden a fledgling with.

John Terry is the only one to be confirmed as leaving at the end of the season and although he has been a great servant for the club it is, in my opinion, not before time. I am one of a very small percentage of Chelsea fans who feel he should have stopped playing for the club a couple of seasons ago. Previous blogs have provided my reasons and explanation for how his lack of pace hindered our attacking game. I’ve been criticised and insulted by fellow fans on message boards many times over for my views on Terry and apparently, it makes me ‘not a real fan’. I don’t knock his accomplishments and he was a great captain but he needs to move on and so do we. I saw posts on Chelsea forums for fans to vote for him as Player of the Season because of his legendary status but I just think that is a huge insult to the players that actually contributed to us winning the title. It’s bad enough that on Monday he’ll be up there sharing the limelight with Gary Cahill as it is.

So, when we start next season I dearly hope we still have Conte in charge and that Hazard and Willian stay too. There are other players that I think would be a huge loss to the team that have not been rumoured to exit yet. Cesar Azpilicueta has been faultless in defence and David Luiz has been the rock in the middle of the back three all season. Kante, obviously, is irreplaceable in midfield and nobody picks a pass better than Fabregas. Thibaut Courtois had some dodgy moments early in the season but has been fantastic ever since and remains one of the best in the world. I’ve already mentioned Pedro and he may have been on my ‘not too bothered’ list last season but he has been a match winner this season and should certainly stay. I really like Victor Moses and although I’m not sure he’d stand up as a right wing back against the best sides in Europe he has been the surprise find of the season.

We need to build on what we have and the key areas for me are the wing backs and the striker. We certainly need cover for both and as I said above, we probably need a right wing back that can defend better than Moses. I’ve seen Ryan Bertrand rumoured to return on the left side which would be nice as I thought he left too soon. I would also like to see Alessandro Florenzi join from Roma to play down the right. Speaking of Roma, we’ve been linked with Radja Nainngolan from their midfield and Antonio Rudiger at centre back. Although I like both I’d prefer to get Florenzi. Up front the main rumours surround Romelu Lukaku returning from Everton and Morata from Real Madrid. The latter would probably suit our system and style of play better but I’d be happy to see either or indeed both join.

At the end of the season I’ll do a player by player review of the Chelsea team and look back and my pre-season prediction blogs to see how many teams I got in the right positions. I know I got Chelsea wrong though and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Si Boyle

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