Chelsea will proceed to be linked to gamers like Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, particularly when reviews come out that each gamers wish to go away their golf equipment.
I predicted that we are going to hear Chelsea’s title linked to Neymar earlier this week when information got here out about him wanting to depart. And as if by clockwork, round an hour later, the hyperlinks from France started.
However these hyperlinks are in all probability not with out substance. We maintain listening to there’s been a want from our homeowners to usher in a giant marquee title since they arrived final summer season. You can’t ignore the business facet of such a signing as nicely, with shirt gross sales coming into the equation. As enterprise males they may lick their lips at such potential signings. However they’re now caught between a rock and a tough place, as a result of they’ve purchased within the new recruitment workforce in addition to Mauricio Pochettino, and the switch technique has modified, in all probability for the higher.
All of us noticed the scattergun strategy final summer season and the way that has now confirmed to be a mistake. And now, with Pochettino and the brand new recruitment workforce, the technique is changing into clear.
Chelsea, and extra importantly Pochettino, need younger and hungry gamers on this squad. Gamers who’re able to run solidly for 90 minutes, battle for second balls, defend even when they’re a striker, and battle for the membership and for one another. Pochettino not solely needs high quality gamers in his squad, he additionally needs intense work horses. And sadly gamers like Mbappe and Neymar will simply by no means match that profile, which is why I consider such names are being shelved now.
We might all get misplaced within the dream of bringing in such a giant title, not simply our homeowners. I’ve seen lots of people on Twitter/X touting for a transfer for Neymar, however the reality stays that these gamers who typically include baggage and egos in addition to very good high quality, are simply not the gamers that Poch needs across the constructing and in his squad proper now. He needs workforce gamers, not people. He needs a household and collective ambiance and really feel in his squad, not gamers who suppose/know they’re higher than everybody else and on ridiculously massive wages.
That’s the opposite factor, our wage construction. Now we have all seen and heard how that has modified for the higher additionally and having gamers on decrease wages however with incentives to earn extra. Though there was rumours suggesting Chelsea have leeway to usher in a marquee participant on massive wages, you simply can not see that ever coming to fruition given the circumstances and our technique we’re following in recruitment proper now.
To be trustworthy, I solely see it as an excellent factor and actually, we must always completely be sticking to it regardless of temptations to maneuver for an Mbappe or a Neymar. A part of Chelsea’s present technique is to signal the subsequent Mbappe or Neymar BEFORE they get to world class degree and demand foolish wages.
As I all the time say, there is no such thing as a manner I’d absolutely rule out a transfer for a marquee title like Mabppe or Neymar, however my feeling proper now could be that none of them will occur purely due to our imaginative and prescient and our pathway proper now beneath the brand new recruitment workforce and Pochettino. I see a pathway away from such names, and I don’t see it altering.