Starting with two weeks to go until Chelsea’s first game of the season, we drew up a list of 14 major issues that Enzo Maresca, the sporting directors and the owners had to solve before the big kick off.
There are now just 8 days to go, so how are they getting on?
Well to be honest, it’s hard to shave off two more since our last update on Thursday. But we did hear today that Chelsea have accepted that they are going to start this season without a shirt sponsor. So while that issues isn’t solved, it’s not something they are going to be worrying about before next weekend. So that one can go.
Nicolas Jackson joined full training almost a week ago, and we can only assume he will be ready for some minutes in our friendly tomorrow against Inter Milan. So we’re going to be generous and tick off the question of whether he will be ready to start the season.
Assuming he plays a half tomorrow, or maybe a little more, he should then be ready for at least an hour against Man City in a week’s time. New signing Samu Omorodion, coming in to back him up, could also see some minutes replacing him in that game.
8 remaining issues
Here’s what’s left to fix. Tomorrow’s friendly is going to be decisive in many of these cases.
- Fix the sloppy defensive mistakes.
- Work out how to fit Christopher Nkunku into the front line.
- Decide on a midfield – Enzo and Caicedo and Dewsbury-Hall all in, with Lavia on the bench?
- Sell or loan Romelu Lukaku before things get even more awkward.
- Make a final decision on who gets the final precious loan slots.
- Can we shift Kepa permanently?
- Getting Cole Palmer back to fitness and figuring out where he fits into the team.
- Build some confidence with wins in our final friendlies.
BUY ROMELU LUKAKU
With huge and hardly any Wins, kindly Sell the unwanted players.