There is not a little sense of groundhog day as I write this.
Our fans are complaining Blue Murder online as we haven`t signed enough players, or the really good ones they want, and several players who have been dead wood for a few seasons now, somehow manage to cling on to a squad place. We haven`t won every single game in pre-season. So, in true football fan fashion, our fans are split into two polarized camps.
The first are sure RdM will be out of a job by Christmas and that our title challenge will last about as long as Liverpool`s. We`ll concede in every game, be vulnerable to set-pieces and our much-vaunted and extremely expensive collection of flair players and attackers will founder and fail. Most will not fancy it on a cold wet and windy Tuesday night somewhere hostile and considerably further north than Watford Gap. Those that do are not good enough anyway. They are absolutely convinced Torres is a busted flush and will fail badly this coming season. These denizens of doom and gloom are widely predicting an eye-watering battering in the charity shield this weekend (with some justification, it has to be said).
The second group are the ones who have been playing fantasy football all summer and in Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Marin, Torres and a few others, we`ve got a team that not only will sweep all before it in the Premiership this season but are odds on (in their mind) of retaining the Champions League. They are very confident of adding at least one more right sided winger, a class right back and a top class striker to our ranks over the next couple of weeks. They look at the squads of our nearest rivals and point out (with some justification, it has to be said) that we`re better man for man than anyone in the UK and well up there with the absolute best Europe has to offer. Including Real and Barca.
So which are you?
Me, well I flit between the two, often several times an hour. Yes, pre-season was rubbish but we`re a far better team than our miserable, limp showing at a combative Brighton side keen to prove a point. We lack movement and speed across transitions but who doesn`t at this stage of the season? Our new players are not setting the world on fire, but who seriously expected them to at this stage? As for Torres – who knows?
I think the sensible money is on a happy or unhappy medium between the two. We won`t finish sixth again. We are not going to lose anything like the number of games we haplessly surrendered under AVB last season. RdM has enough about him not to make the mistakes the Portuguese Projectman made and with the side in transition it is pretty unlikely things will go badly enough for him to be forced to pay with his job. Conversely, we are in a transition, so the title looks a long shot and there are probably too many people and teams around Europe whose noses were well put out of joint by our win in Munich for us to seriously think we`ll retain the trophy. That`s not to say we won`t, just that it will be extremely difficult. We`ve got the Super Cup, World Club Cup, League Cup and FA Cup to contest as well, so there are a lot of baubles to play for. I`m not being arrogant I don`t think to suggest that we`re odds on not to finish the season empty-handed.
Personally I`d rather have a season of consolidation. I want to fight Arsenal and the Manchester clubs for the title all the way, and do a lot better than sixth. Top four is an absolute minimum. If we win a cup great, if not, no big deal. The key thing here is consistency and consolidation. Ignore the media and their self-generated “pressure” – this is about putting down foundations. This season is about dynasty building.
Our young talent is raw and needs a season to bed in. Expecting too much too early will ruin them – pressure always does that. We`ve still got the likes of Hilario, Turnbull, Ferreira, Benayoun, Malouda, Meireilles and Essien taking up space on the squad sheet and it is a very safe bet that none or at least very, very few of them will be here this time next year. Some may yet depart this summer. The likes of Piazon, Blackman, Chalobah, McEachran, Kane, Kalas, Van Aanholt, Davila, Thorgan Hazard, Wallace and Courtois will be ready to come in next summer, but this season has come a bit too soon for most of them. This time next season we`ll be looking at the likes of Swift, Feruz, Loftus-Cheek, Kiwomya and Ake to step up.
So, I`ll repeat the same tired mantra I trot out every August.
Lets not get too carried away here. If we beat City 4-0 or they beat us 4-0 this weekend, let`s not get carried away. Expectations are just a burden. There are few things in life that are nailed on certainties but here they are.
Go to OUR Expectations to see what I’m fully expecting for the new season. Not many things nailed on for the coming season but these things definitely are…
LINK – https://chelsea.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=530445
CAREFREE!!
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