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| THE BLUE NIGERIANS... MIKEL AND MOSES |
But we must agree that with all of our expenditure which dwarfs that of our rivals...at least till Manchester City and their Arabs opened their wallets, we are still not where we ought to be. Seriously since Ferguson outclassed Mourinho in Mou's third season, despite the continued purchase of big name players and Mourinho's eventual sack (yes he was) Chelsea has not been as dominant as we should be. Yes Ancelotti won us the double with some excellent scoring formations and yes Di Matteo won us the Champions League and FA Cup in a heroic manner, yet The owner and I know Chelsea is not the finished article yet.
Seriously with players like Shevchenko, Crespo, Veron, Ballack, Deco, Torres, Mutu, all having been on our teamlist quite recently, with the huge amounts expended on their purchases, we should not be on just three premiership trophies and a couple of third and even a fifth place as the above named players are definitely "Galacticos" in every conceivable way. Yet Manchester United, with no real purchase of note (They built Ronaldo and Rooney was a kid in Everton) is still the best club in the land.
Now aside the players, we have also had the best coaches football has to offer. We have had the old wiliness of Ranieri, had a world cup winner in Scolari, an experienced hand in Guus Hiddink, a quadruple Champions League winner in Ancelotti (twice as player, twice as coach) a young genius in Villas Boas, a home-grown crowd favourite in Di Matteo, and Champions League, Europa League, Spanish league and World Club Cup winner in Benitez and yet we still fall short of the standards set by Manchester United who has had just a coach within all those times...and I did not even mention Avram Grant.
If I was to extend the comparison to other leagues, Bayern and Barcelona who have spent so much less have outclassed us these past years.
So I dare to ask why this is so. Why we still lack a certain factor that puts us just below Manchester United, Bayern and Barcelona.
Many will point to the musical chair of our coaching staff...the inconsistency. Many will say Ancelotti or AVB or even Benitez should have been kept to continue their work on the team.
I wish to disagree to a certain degree. Manchester City has had one coach and two trophies in three years of mad expenditure. And have achieved precious little.
What then is the problem? I dare to say a lack of chance to young talents to mature
Looking at these three clubs I have put in front of us, you will see that their strength has been built on either grooming or buying fantastic young players and letting them grow and jell with some other expensive big money buys. Each player is not assessed by his individual ability or super-star nature but how they with time grow to understand the playing philosophy of their teams and how the team then runs in their blood as opposed to being just mercenaries.
Listening to Benitez say Mourinho has a warchest of 100 million dollars, I said to myself, "here we go again". And the rumour mills have not helped either with the chase by Chelsea of every single player with any talent and in all positions.
Now look at Chelsea. Our three greatest legends are Lampard, Drogba and Terry. Lampard was in West Ham as well as Terry but their relative young ages and desire to do well and make a name for themselves led them to achieve such great feats for our club. Lampard outclassed the Petites and Verons and Jarosiks and Ballacks and Maniche and Decos and every big name we bought to shore up the midfield....and he was in West Ham. Terry is the highest scoring defender ever in Premiership history and this was because as a young kid he learnt from Lebouf and Desaille and Chelsea got in his soul. Drogba, a relatively unknown with Marseille also needed a stage to shine and despite all the clubs attempt to relegate him to the bench with purchases like Crespo, Shevvy, Anellka, and Torres, Drogba proved that names and fame play second fiddle to desire and hunger. Drogba bled blue which Crespo and Shevvy and Crespo never did.
So once again we are at the Rubicon. We once again have gone and gotten a sojourner as coach in Mourinho who has the effrontery to say "if Chelsea sack me, I become a millionaire and a new club will hire me". It is to him we have turned proving once more all we care about is a quick fix. Yes he has said he intends to stay for a long time but knowing Mourinho....
In the next few days I know Chelsea will have signed Cavani and I pray it goes well. However WHEN WILL CHELSEA LEARN when it comes to signing expensive centre forwards? I hope it is different this time.
Then again a very brilliant project is about to be thrown out. These past years Chelsea has acquired some very brilliant young prospects. These boys in the youth team have dominated the age grade competitions in the Premier league. If the Premiership like Spain allowed clubs register their youngsters, the quality in our youth team would have astounded everyone.
We now have in our fold a group of fantastic youths who with time will know only Chelsea as their club and their very blood will be blue and Stanford Bridge their only home. We have the very excellent Ruben Loftus Creek who I can assure you today can be as excellent as Rodendo was. This seventeen year old held his own against Manchester City twice and i am talking Yaya Toure. Then there is Nathan Ake whom Benitez has blooded. There is also Kevin De Bruyne who is outplaying Hazard in the Belgian National team and Thorgan Hazard, Eden's younger brother who was also invited to this very talented Belgian squad. We also have the very skillful Wallace from Brazil as cover for Azpilicueta who himself is a youngster. Then there is Chilobah.
Then to the attack, we all saw Lukaku. He outplayed Torres and Ba doing a hat trick against manchester United.
Now with John Terry still able to play as central defenders play into the late thirties, as Ivanovic is able to play as centre and as right back making our right backs three, as Luiz is able to play holding midfield and Libero and sweeper, as Cahill has proven he is a fantastic committed great centre-half in waiting, as all defenders named are able to chip in an unfair share of needed goals, as we have both Hazard Eden and Oscar in a second season and definitely more acclimatized, as we have a Mata that totally outplayed Bale truth be said last season, as we have a Ramires that is both a holding midfielder and a number 8 and also a right midfielder, as we have a Mikel who we have seen still has the number ten in him if Chelsea will let him express himself and who even Benitez chose in our difficult matches until he was injured (I hope Mourinho does not punish him for refusing to join Inter after his agent Shittu had "agreed" with Mourinho), with Lampard still able to find his way to the goal at unbelievable consistency, as Torres for the first time went beyond 20 goals and was our highest goal scorer, as Moses has proven England made a mistake in letting him play for Nigeria with his dribbling, work-rate and crucial goals, as Ba will have had a pre=season this time with our midfielders, with Hazard and Oscar and mata all able to be midfielders and left and right wingers and fluidly switching the roles in matches...with Marko Marin not yet clicking but deserving of a second chance, WHY DO WE NEED TO BUY PLAYERS??? Is Mourinho not THE SPECIAL ONE or ONLY ONE?
Honestly, Abramovic should pocket his millions and let Mourinho work with the same tools the other coaches were given. He has the advantage of them having acclimatized. Lukaku is no longer the raw-eyed thing in awe of Drogba. Let him reel him and courtois in from Athletico Madrid and switch him and the injury-prone Chec every now and then as Lindegaard and De Gea and as is done in Spurs too. Lets have these youngsters in to train and work with the Lampards and Terrys. This squad won the Europa. If we played as we started the season under Di Matteo or as we ended it under Benitez, winning in Old Trafford, we can win the Premier league without risking another 40 million pounds for a striker that is in Chelsea to pasture.
Now some people will point to Arsenal's trrophylessnes as proof that you must buy big players. This would be misleading as Wenger has not been allowed to keep the players he grooms like Flamini and Hleg and Fabregas and Ashley Cole and Thierry Henry and Anelka and Alexander Song and Van Persie. I would have loved to see him shut the door to important exits....or maybe not. Song, Fabregas, Flamini Hleb (his hleb not the one ruined in Barcelona) added to Cazorla, and Arteta, with Van Persie in front of them, that is the team I would have like Wenger's experiment to be judged by.
Mourinho, if you are special, work with the players that are in your dressing room right now and the youngsters. Like Guardiola with Messi and Xavi and Iniesta and Ferguson with Scholes and Giggs and Beckham and Van Gaal with Ajax back then with their young inexpensive squads BUILD US A DYNASTY, you cannot buy one else Manchester City would be Champions not basement of Europe.
CHELSEA CHELSEA
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