Chelsea have a few attacking players on their books and are looking to sign more. Some of the players they’ve got are clearly not performing, and will have to be let go before any new faces can arrive to give Graham Potter’s squad the strengthening it desperately needs come January.
So when it comes to balancing up which ones to let go and which to keep, the club are likely to dump whichever of the players is keener to go.
In this case, that clearly seems to be Hakim Ziyech. CaughtOffside cite quotes from Italy where it’s claimed that Ziyech has “wanted to leave for while” after falling out of favour with Thomas Tuchel last summer.
They go as far as to say that the Morocco star has “a desire to actively leave Chelsea.” If that’s true, we can’t see us looking to keep him around once a replacement is secure. Others, like Christian Pulisic, may have to wait until the summer.
El entrenador tiene que distinguirse por ser capaz de exponenciar la habilidad de sus miembros, y es preocupante que bajo su mando no desarrollen lo que en sus equipos nacionales exhiben.
Can’t blame him! He’s a very talented player who’s never been quite the right fit and he’s rightfully sick of being underplayed and under-appreciated.
Ziyech is part of a disturbing pattern of bringing in guys (including Lukaku, Werner and Havertz) who performed extraordinarily well for their prior club only to underperform for Chelsea. If it were only one or two guys, you might blame the players, but the fairly consistent pattern of high-priced flops suggests it has perhaps more to do with the crazy churn of Chelsea managers leaving their successors with a squad of square peg/round hole conundrums.
Take Lukaku. Conte wanted him when he was Chelsea manager, but the higher-ups dawdled, got beat to him by Utd and then, in a panic, sprayed 70 million for Morata . We all know how that worked out! Morata, after an encouraging start, ultimately flopped (literally and figuratively) and within two years Lukaku found huge success with Conte at Inter. So, right, we say, let’s break the bank to bring Lukaku home. But now, several mangers later, Lukaku is a square peg in a round hole—thrust into a system for which he is not particularly well suited, with no L Martinez as his wingman and a manager who doesn’t seem to much want him. Romelu Lukaku didn’t suddenly become a bad footballer, but Chelsea Football Club spent tens of millions to make it appear so!
Now we’re back at it again with Ziyech and Pulisic. Both have shown this World Cup that they are fine footballers. Nothing wrong there. But, largely because the current squad is a grab bag of mismatching parts, their manager(s) have failed to get the most out of the considerable investment the club made in acquiring them. One can only hope that, if/when they are sold, the players who replace them are bought, not merely because they look “shiny” in the shop window, but because they fit the style and system of football we aim to play.