We love Frank Lebouef’s column for Simon Phillips’ Substack.
It really lets the former Chelsea defender get specific and unleash about Chelsea in a way we don’t normally see. This week he’s talking about the way that Chelsea spent so much money but look weaker than ever.
Lebouef suggests Chelsea missed a trick by not signing Benjamin Andre who played for for Rennes, and now for Lille.
His point is not that Andre is the best player around – quite the opposite. The fact is that he’s a bargain buy who would have brought a lot to the team in terms of experience and leadership:
“There is a midfielder that I want to name, a player called Benjamin Andre, he played for Rennes and now plays for Lille, and he’s a real soldier and a warrior. The type of player Chelsea desperately needed and he would have been available for £30m at most,” the World Cup winner explained.
“He’s like Denis Wise, Frank Lampard, Roy Keane, those kind of players. We’ve seen it from Casemiro since he joined United, we’ve seen the difference he’s made. It’s the experience.”
It’s a convincing case, and we made many similar petitions over the last 18 months. In areas like central midfield and full back, where we needed cover more than anything, we could have bought average players with exceptional mentalities.
Instead we’ve bought potentially exceptional players – but they aren’t able to contribute as they should because they’re in a team which lacks leadership and commitment.
Sometimes the best team isn’t about having the best players in every position, it’s about having 2 or 3 exceptional players supported by a team of committed workers around them.
