Joe Cole is on TNT Sport covering the Man U Brighton game, but of course they had to get the former Chelsea man’s take on the situation at his old club.
His statement sums up the feelings of many fans:
“You have an idea of what Manchester United are trying to do, what Manchester City are trying to do, Liverpool. With Chelsea, to spend the amount of money on the players and there’s no real clarity,” Cole explained.
“You’ve got to think, 40 to 50 players – we don’t even know the exact number – in a squad, in a building, all with ambition to play for Chelsea. It just looks like chaos from the outside, you’ve just got to say it how it is. For players, Raheem Sterling’s treatment, Connor Gallagher’s treatment, Trevor Chalobah is still in the building. It doesn’t sit well with Chelsea fans and it is very hard to explain in the position I’m in as an ex-player. It’s unprecedented. That amount of players at the club, I don’t see how it works.”
Defences don’t add up
We’ve heard various defences of the situation – including from Enzo Maresca himself – claiming that there’s no issue with numbers. The idea is that because the coach is only taking training sessions with a standard group of around 25, there other 15 or more Blues hanging around aren’t an issue.
But as Cole makes clear, you can’t just banish these guys to pitch 2 and expect there to be no problems. You can’t isolate players from their unhappy teammates totally, and the bad vibes will spread without issue.
If you’re one of the lucky players who are involved in the main group, could you really deny that the chaos and shabby treatment going on just a few metres away isn’t going to affect your thinking about your future, and your perception of how the club is being run?
