I’m coming back to this debate again from a couple of weeks ago. There is a lot being said about certain Chelsea players who might be eyeing moves away right now.
Many of these players we probably wont really worry too much about if they did leave. But then there are other players, Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer just to name a couple, who we would be quite gutted to lose. I think if we did end up losing both of them this summer, and I’ll have more on Palmer in another article out today, many Chelsea fans would actually be devastated.
I think really, if we end up losing even one of them then it is the project well and truly failing. I think it’s failing anyway. But if you lose a key player who is a starting player in our best Xl for any of the managers he has played for and is still a young player, then that is a core sign of failure.
Yes, many players have this dream to play for Real Madrid. But let’s be honest, we wouldn’t even be hearing these stories of discontent and rumours linking these types of players with moves away if we were challenging on all fronts right now, would we? Some of the players are getting itchy feet and eyeing moves away for many reasons, not just that it is a dream to play in Madrid or whatever. They’re unhappy with how the project is going, changes of managers, styles of play, many other things. And it all mounts up.
The title of this article is a Reece James quote from not too long ago. But unfortunately, they aren’t all going to be Reece James’. The likes of Fernandez and Palmer have been helping him carry the bricks, but they’ve been carrying them for years and the house is nowhere near being built yet, so they’re getting tired and fed up of the labouring without finishing the house build.
And for me, I will always adopt the stance that if you don’t want to be at Chelsea, then the exit door is over there, even if I understand the discontent and unhappiness. We only want players here who want to be here. The problem with adopting that stance right now though is we could end up losing many of our top players. Everyone says ‘well Chelsea have all the power here because players are on long contracts’. And whilst that is true, do they really want to keep a player if that player has come to them and asked to leave? If it was me, I wouldn’t be keeping them. As I’ve said before, keeping unhappy players causes major internal issues and motivation problems. It’s never wise in my opinion.
Fernandez has once again been twerking for Real Madrid in the media over the weekend and it’s never been so clear what he wants to do. If he wants to go, we just need to let him go. His eyes and mind are already out the door in my opinion, and just ask Frank Lampard what it is like working with players who want out… Unfortunately they are not all Reece James and Moises Caicedo.