The weekend press was full of both plaudits for the victors and brickbats for the losers. No English representation in the last 4 of the Champions League since Adam was a lad and all of a sudden the football journalists are acting like the world has come to an end. Let’s look at the so called big four starting today with Chelsea.
Now the return of the self proclaimed chosen one was never going to be an easy tie. Over the two legs the game was won on the tactics board as Inter totally out thought Chelsea and ran out very worthy winners. However putting aside the Jose factor Chelsea were also in the middle of the annual sticky patch that all teams go through. Draws with teams such as Hull did not help the confidence and also the African Nations cup and the John Terry scandals affected the performances over a 4 week period. These are now yesterdays news and their current form is back to where it was as the 7-1 and 3-0 wins against a quality Villa team have evidenced.
So there are reasons as opposed to excuses for their early exit from the Champions League. However the big reasons for me are Chelsea’s ageing squad and a lack of a productive youth policy. Other clubs seem to have a fairly regular rotation policy but with Chelsea it is nearly always the same 11 regardless of if they are playing Arsenal or say Aldershot in a cup game. The likes of Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Ballack etc. are not getting any younger and with a world cup coming up they will be playing in excess of 60 games in a 11 month period. Where are the kids pushing for places? It is well known that a few years ago Chelsea went on a spending spree poaching a lot of the best 15/16 year olds, and paying good money for untried kids. However this has backfired. Take the example of Tom Taiwo who was poached from Leeds as a 15 year old by Chelsea with an alleged +£1 million compensation paid to the Yorkshire club. A few weeks back Taiwo returned to Elland Road as he warmed the bench for Carlisle United!
The figure of £60 million has been talked about as the expenditure on Chelsea’s youth academy over the last few years and this I feel is where the problem they have is rooted. The guys at the top at Stamford Bridge seem to think that throwing money at a problem will bring success and, whilst Chelsea have had their most successful few years ever, the holy grail of the Champions League is still as elusive as ever. Although noises are being made about prudence moving forward, the problem is now very deep rooted and money will have to be made available. As their first team gets older Chelsea have to get the kids coming through the ranks. If they don’t then the only option is for Roman to get the cheque book out again and spend very big as £5 million on a player here and there will not get them the price he relishes the most. The big question though is has he still got the appetite? As he has just spent a reported £400 million on two new super-yachts it may be that his thoughts are not necessarily on cold winter nights in Wigan or Sunderland.