The London is Blue podcast always do really good match recaps, and today they’ve even looked ahead to Chelsea’s summer for a look at what might be coming down the pipeline to improve us next summer.
They focused one something we’ve discussed a million times – the lack of leadership at maturity in this squad. Presenter Nick Verlaney had a couple of ideas for how we could easily address that, including a move for a player we’ve been regularly linked to almost from the moment he left the club in 2022:
“Marc Guehi has been touted to return [to Chelsea], that will only happen if we make the Champions League. So I’m not counting on that at all. But he’s a leader. He’s a captain. He’s been captain of Palace for a while. Now he’s an England international. He’s an incredible person and leader, and I think would add a hell of a lot of steel to this team.”
We have to agree. He’s at a perfect point in his career where he’s mature and experienced and seems to have a great leader’s personality, but is still young enough to have room to grow and to have ambitions to go to the next level. We’d love to see him sign this summer.
🫡 @nickverlaney believes Chelsea's pursuit of Marc Guehi and the arrival of Andrey Santos could help fill the leadership void in the side.
FULL POD 👉 https://t.co/91u2FQHUfZ pic.twitter.com/fQEVDojfhu
— London Is Blue Podcast ⭐️⭐️ (@LondonBluePod) April 16, 2025
Chelsea already have leadership upgrade booked in
As a wildcard, they also mentioned a player already on the books who couldn’t have impressed the football world more, and will be joining us in the summer:
“And then someone who I think most people might have heard a little bit about is Andrey Santos. And look, you’re telling me: ‘Nick, he’s not a veteran. He’s 20, 21 years old, whatever he is.’ [But] he is a born leader.”
He may be young, but the evidence from his loan at Strasbourg this season is there. He knows how to lead.
It’s incredible how people with so little understand of football have such a loud voice these days. Guehi is average and nowhere near good enough for what we need. He’s not a real leader either. Clueless
Folks can carp all they want about the need for another striker, but the biggest thing we lack at the moment is a steadying force in central defence—namely a first-rate keeper and at least one centre back with experience and leadership to help keep this young squad organized. As it stands, we rarely see a match where we don’t suffer at least one costly miscue in the back that costs us points.