Chelsea’s transfer recruitment has taken hits left, right and centre during these past few years.
A strong focus on young talent has resulted in the team finishing in the bottom half of the Premier League table and now at risk of missing out on Europe again.
On Saturday evening, Chelsea showed why this young, inexperienced and highly-criticised team needs some leaders, experience and know-how around them.
The under-fire Mauricio Pochettino watched his side record a 2-2 draw at fourth-placed Aston Villa – they beat the same team at Villa Park earlier in the year.
The London club might have felt that they should have won it, in the end, but they were still 2-0 down at half-time, only days after losing 5-0 to Arsenal.
This was a prime example of these players needing some much-needed experience in their squad because they have been way too inconsistent this term.
One of the players who holds that key is a certain Thiago Silva, but he will depart in the summer when his contract expires.
Sources told HITC back in February that the legendary defender wouldn’t be handed a new deal – and now the club announced it on Monday.
At the end of the day, he is 39 and if he was 10 years younger, then the Chelsea owners would probably pay £1bn just to clone him eleven times over.
But the £110k-a-week star is set to leave and Owen Hargreaves thinks they are making a mistake because he feels ‘he can still play’, as he told Premier League Productions (29/04/24 at 2:45 pm).
The former midfielder urged those at Stamford Bridge to extend his stay because players like Levi Colwill, Axel Disasi and Benoît Badiashile will be learning a lot from him.
Thiago Silva to leave Chelsea
“Chelsea should keep him on,” said Hargreaves. “I think they should. The reason why they are struggling this season is because they have no leaders. No experienced players.
“They need more, not less of them! Won the Champions League and been one of the best centre-backs of all time, to mentor all those brilliant young centre-backs they have. Colwill, Badiashile and Disasi.
“Those guys are priceless in the dressing room to have. A guy like Thiago Silva, who has been there and done it, he doesn’t fold in the big moments. He can still play. It’s so important to have mentors when you come through – that guy would be the best mentor ever.”
Who will step up for Chelsea?
Those are some big shoes to fill. You saw during Chelsea’s thumping win over Everton and that penalty incident just how immature these players are.
Either they learn very fast, the responsibility is pushed onto an individual player to assume that role or the club dips into the transfer market.
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Chelsea are doing a lot of things right on the pitch, it’s just lacking that consistency and ruthless nature.
If they can get that right, then they will be returning back to Champions League football sooner rather than later.