A top five place in the Premier League this season should be enough to get Champions League football, and trust me, Chelsea need and want Champions League football, despite what Enzo Maresca might be saying in public.
I’m sat on a bit of news actually that I don’t want to put out right now because it would unearth some trees. There’s a chance that I put it out soon if things go a certain way, but there’s no way I am putting this out there right now. It’s not transfer related, but it’s quite annoying. That is all I will say on it for now, unless I decide to put it out there. Please just respect that. I don’t know why I am dropping hints of it, but I guess I just feel the need to. Let’s see what happens.
Chelsea are currently 6th in the Premier League and if it ended today, we would not have Champions League football for yet another season. That could damage us financially in a horrific way. Front of shirt sponsors, at least to get the best deals, want Champions League clubs. The UCL brings SO much revenue in so many ways. We need it.
I’m not going to be so dramatic to say that Chelsea have 7 days to save their season because let’s be honest, right before Christmas we were doing just fine and we should have even topped the league at one point. But I maintain, and as I said at that time, we were massively over-achieving at that point and also got lucky with the teams around us under-achieving and under-performing. The squad we started the season with and still have, is probably rightfully around 6th/7th place currently – that is what I predicted. So I think now we are still slightly over-achieving for the squad we have, but our current league position is slightly more realistic. I called a 7th place finish this season.
We can change that all by addressing what the squad needs this window. There is too much to do in the January window, that was always the case. You all know what I believe we need to add – the spine of the team, so a goalkeeper, centre back, DM, and a striker. But these must be the right profiles and calibre of player to make a difference. Yes, I know we have Moises Caicedo. But with Romeo Lavia’s injury issues, we at least need midfield cover in the deep midfield position. Caicedo for me is more N’Golo Kante than Nemanja Matic, he is more of an 8 that a 6. So we need to add a more suitable 6 profile to the squad in my view. I rate Caicedo highly by the way. But we need a physical DM with clear defensive awareness and stability. Caicedo I actually think it better when he can play with more freedom to roam anyway and help us win the ball back higher up the pitch.
We could have addressed at least half of these issues in January, but we have so far failed to do that. We still have time to maybe address half or just quarter of the above. But will we? I’ve completely lost any faith that we will to be honest, but we need to.
In terms of making or breaking our season, I truly believe that addressing the above, or as much of it as we can, would genuinely do that.
We are not far off at all. We have some good players. We have had some good performances this season, and there have been many positive signs. Recently it’s dropped off massively and there are more concerns. But overall, I genuinely believe if we add a spine then we are there, we are back challenging consistently at the very top again. For me that is clear as long as it is the right players that come in for the here and now, not more raw players who may or may not come good but we can spin for profit or use as trade deals if they don’t come good. We are so close to being there if we fix up right now.
Well, I say so close, but the fact we still need a spine to this team after FIVE transfer windows is just ludicrous and shows real incompetence from the sporting directors. But anyway, I went at them yesterday, I’ll leave off them just for today.
But I’m not all doom and gloom, I can remember that we have been very good in moments this season and we do have some very good players in this squad. Get what is needed and we are there, I fully believe that.
If we don’t, then we have a genuine chance of missing out on playing Champions League football again next season, and that would be a financial disaster.
Yes, we could wing it, risk it, and just hope that we show the form we showed before Christmas again and we may well just make UCL football again. Or, we could make the additions that we need and bring the right profiles and for me, almost guarantee UCL football for next season. THAT is the difference for me. Let’s not play with fire, guys.
