This may come across a rant but I am not angry and I have not lost it. I am just disappointed and while I pen this to generate discussion within the VC community and the Chelsea FC fan base at large I also pen this in the hope that Patrick Bamford may happen to read this and glean a nugget of wisdom from it.
Below is the direct verbatim quote from Gus hiddink when recently asked about Bamford`s current situation;
‘Bamford hardly played for Palace, so first he has to prove himself with the under-21s and make a step. Then we’ll see what can happen.’
-Guus Hiddink; source: ESPN
Before I return to this statement let us take a quick excursion back on memory lane so we can all get some frame of reference.
A few years ago I penned a piece on Romelu Lukaku in which I urged wisdom and caution in how we handled the young man lest we (Chelsea and our then manager Jose) end up repeating with him the mistakes that ManU and SAF made with Paul Pogba.
Lukaku is a guy who clearly likes to talk and when the decision was finally made to sell him because of the things he had said in the media and the way he carried himself as well as an attitude that to me bordered on selfishness I actually felt that the right decision had been made but I knew the guy had the talent to be a top draw striker and that we would be losing something substantial and special in him especially given his age, his physical attributes and his aptitude and scholarship for the game. Just 2 years hence Lukaku is among the top scorers in the BPL..this should not come as a surprise to anyone..he had been scoring in double digits every where he has played since his teenage years whether it was at Anderlecht, on at the various sundry places we sent him on loan.
It has taken some time but I must now on this forum apologize to the young man for giving him such a hard time regarding how he handled his demands for first team chances at Chelsea FC. The blunt truth is that in retrospect he was absolutely right to agitate the way he did and to finally up and leave when it was clear his chances of getting a fair chance were essentially nigh nil. Today the guy we sold to Everton for ~ 28 mill when he makes his next move will command easily over 50 mill and an eye watering salary package . We thought we had made a good deal with his sale but as with the KDB fiasco in him again we see the folly of living in the now rather than thinking about and investing in the future of our club. The guy understood “the fierce urgency of now” and refused to be told “to wait his turn” any longer by Chelsea FC and it is patently clear to anyone who is objective and not just a blind hater that he made the right call.
This brings me full circle back to Patrick Bamford..personality wise this guy is the anti-lukaku. He is a quiet unassuming English lad ?he does not make any waves, he does not love the media, he has shown patience akin to Job and has been the “model professional”. He has been a “good boy” who waited and waited for his chance to come and where has that got him? Well it has got him a full half season wasted at Crystal palace where he has not racked up a grand total of even 45 total minutes in a half season.
Now to add insult to injury Hiddink says “he has to prove himself with the under 21s and then make a step then “we” (the infallible Chelsea FC brain trust who have done so well in developing and nurturing youths in the past) will then see what happens.
Please understand we are talking here of Pat Bamford the Championship player of the year from just last year. We are talking a young English man who is 22 already and who in two prior loans in league 1 and the championship was a prolific scorer everywhere he was loaned. Chelsea then sent him on an ill fated loan to a BPL side and there he got absolutely no chance to even compete and now he is to demoted to the under 21s to essentially start from scratch. In the meantime the senior squad has 1.5 strikers total and is paying a Colombian mercenary ~ 150k/week to sit on the bench and do diddly squat. The said mercenary was not deemed deserving of the malouda treatment but Bamford since he is English and was not bought for big money is fair game for that sort of insult.
I have read all sorts of nonsense on various sites saying Bamford was not good enough that is why Crystal palace have not played him or that he is not Chelsea quality..Please cut the baloney!!! When will people learn in the BPL there are no minnows anymore..every BPL team is awash with TV cash..they can afford to buy very good players of their own. When these so called lower BPL teams get players on loan it is just an extra insurance policy..the managers of such sides will always prioritize the development of their own players. Their own players will always be preferred and always be given 1st, 2nd , 3rd..etc choice. The loanees only get a look in when all other local options are off the table or if the said loan player is a top tier finished product talent (in which case they shouldn`t even be on loan anyway).
What is really annoying about Chelsea FC is a consistent pattern of behavior that borders on lunacy..repeating the same mistake again and again and actually expecting different results. We have seen this old script play itself out before with how Brendan Rodgers handled Victor Moses and Josh McCheran but we have still not learnt out lessons. Honestly short of sending players to Vitesse (where they are actually needed and often get a chance because that club is quite cash strapped in a relatively poor Eredevise league) loans to the rich BPL clubs is a waste of time for the player and club. When you out source the development of your own players to rivals in your own local league you get hosed (using American lingo) and deservedly so. To those who knock Bamford as not being Chelsea quality..i cannot get over the incredulity of such claims. This guy is not Chelsea quality but Falcao is? But the has beens we are now reportedly chasing like Pato, Lavezzi and Adebayor are? Again these are people who look with now lenses and have no clue about building for the future.
Bamford is no Messi but there are some undeniable facts about him. The guy is a natural poacher..he knows how to handle himself in the 18 yard box..he is a natural goal scorer..he is no play maker, he wont add much to open play in the final third but he is a fox in the hole goal scorer akin to greats like Pippo Inzaghi, the legendary Raul and Chicarito Hernandez whose value was similarly panned by LVG and ManU only for the diamond that SAF recognized to re-emerge at Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga and with the gunners now circling to try and bring him back the BPL.
In case the Chelsea board and other nay sayers forgot..the goal of this game we all love is to score more goals than the opposition. Goal scorers are at a high premium for that reason. Not every player is the silky smooth artist that Eden Hazard is..and in case anyone has failed to notice even at his best last year Hazard is not a natural goal scorer. Our side could really use one right about now. To give you an idea how critical it is to have a natural goal scorer on a side, look at ManU`s fortunes this season and the last under LVG. That lunatic gutted the striker corps of ManU..during SAFs time he always had 4 natural strikers in his first team. LVG whittled that down to just 2 and despite that because Anthony Martial was on fire early on they still managed to remain in the whereabouts of the top 4.
Our single striker of the 1.5 we have has only started showing signs of life recently and has been a shadow of his past form last year (which btw as good as it was in the BPL was horrid in Europe even then). You would think that with our poverty stricken situation in the striker dept and considering we are now down to our last standing Englishman in JT as far as starters for the first team that Chelsea FC`s decision makers would be wise and actually encourage the promotion of half decent English talent but no..they would rather retain Falcao on the first team rooster to gather more dust on the bench while paying him a king`s ransom monthly and relegate a hungry English man to the juniors..to again “prove” himself.
Just a food for thought as I round this up..the runner up to Bamford as Championship player of the year is now in the BPL and has been playing regularly and has developed a potent partnership with another goal scorer who has been moving heads and keeping that newly promoted side well above the relegation zone and above us. I will leave you guys to find out who that is.
Also for those who trot out this nonsense that Bamford is not Chelsea quality, well based on their performances in the championship and when sent on loan Harry Kane and Dele Alli were certainly nowhwere close to even what Bamford achieved. See where they are today when given a chance and when trusted by a manager who has a clue about youth development and a board that finally seemed to come to an understanding that the BPL is first and foremost an English league..it is in a teams best interest both for good will, local fan fervor and interest as well as well familiarity with the grit and commitment required to have a core of British players in a squad. Even stubborn Wenger at Arsenal has since figured this out and since this change and since he learnt some tricks from jose about the importance of defensive competence the Gunner`s fortunes have changed.
One more thing..Chelsea is so typical of undervaluing what they have right under their noses and always coveting what is out there. As a club we so often only appreciate what we had when it is gone from us and then has been polished and burnished by someone else.
Final word is a word of advice to Pat Bamford..kid get on the phone and talk with Lukaku, Bertrand and KDB. You need to get yourself a shark of an agent who will make waves for you, start aggressively and proactively looking out for you, and your professional career development because Chelsea FC certainly will not and frankly I don`t think the decision makers for our club have a clue, plan, nor blue print what to do with our youth players.
Patrick you will need to develop a nasty side..sadly with Chelsea FC good boys often end up left holding the stick..ask Ryan Bertrand how being a good boy ended up for him. By this summer Patrick, heed this word..if you have not started getting a run out in the Chelsea FC first team, make all the ruckus needed and do a lukaku..do what you need to do to exit this circus and find yourself a club on a permanent transfer out that will give you a fair chance. Don`t you worry it is quite likely that when you start banging in the goals for another BPL team or somewhere in Europe Chelsea will show up again now willing to pay a king`s ransom to bring you back. This is appears is the Chelsea way. Best wishes young man and KTBFFH.
Share this article
