Chelsea’s season is at such a hectic moment that it’s easy to lose focus on the big picture.
Press conference by press conference and game by game the Blues are rattling through a quite frantic final quarter of the campaign, but despite the madness now, before we know it we will be spat out the other side, into a long summer without club action.
Luckily there are last summer’s European Championships still to play, and there are going to be tons of Blues out competing with their national teams.
We’re going to be stressed about injuries of course, but you can’t let that ruin your enjoyment of a big tournament like this one. If you’ve got any strong feelings about Kai Havertz’ Germany or N’Golo Kante’s France you might even open an account to bet on the Euro 2020 games we’ve got in prospect later this year.
It will be interesting to see where international Blues fans, from countries not playing in the tournament, put their allegiance. Our key players are nicely spread out between the major nations. England of course have most of our academy players, but don’t forget Andreas Christensen with Denmark.
Kante has Olivier Giroud with him for Les Bleus, while our German contingent is exceptionally large at the moment. Although if you’ve spent a whole season getting frustrated by Havertz and Timo Werner in Chelsea shirts, you might be looking forward to a break.
Our Spanish contingent has shrunk in recent years, and neither Marcos Alonso not Cesar Azpilicueta look too likely to be called up at this stage.
For the Italophiles, there’s Italy with Jorginho and Emerson Palmieri both looking sure starters for the Azzuri.
That’s about it for the major nations, although there is one cheeky long shot to think about. Billy Gilmour is perhaps Scotland’s brightest talent at the moment, but there’s no way Steve Clarke can justify taking him to the tournament unless he gets a couple of games for his club before the conclusion of the season.
Unless there’s a dead rubber for Thomas Tuchel’s team in the final game or two of the league, we can’t see that happening. It’s a brutal shame for Billy, who might never again see his country qualify for a major tournament like this.
Whichever Blues are out there playing, let’s just hope they’re doing it with a freshly minted Champions League winners medal in their back pockets…
