Paul Pogba: The Player To Watch for Chelsea FC in the Champions League final

With the Champions League final just finishing between FC Barcelona and Juventus plenty in the footballing world had their eyes affixed on the brilliant players on display. One that all Chelsea fans and likely the club were watching is 22-year old Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba.

Why? Because he is a player that could be the I(f they pay Juventus a lot of lira)T signing in the midfield for a lot of clubs for a lot of years.

As Gabrielle Marcotti’s recent ESPN article pointed out, Pogba is a player that seems to always be on the move despite his talents. Being young and skillful has drawn the notice of other top clubs around Europe to Serie A champions Juventus and their quality players.

Chelsea, recently being crowned the Premier League champions, are naturally in that mix. After a commanding season where the Blues were top of the table from match day one to 38 they’re the best team in Brittania. But, being knocked out by French side PSG in the first elimination round in last season’s Champions League puts the Blues at ninth in the rankings at best. Are Chelsea the ninth-best team in UEFA? I don’t think so and the rest of the club and its supporters probably don’t.

Chelsea and Jose Mourinho will need to make some changes to consistently get into that Barca, Real Madrid, Bayern, and Juve range.

In the Champions League semifinal second-leg against Real Madrid, Paul Pogba used his physical ability to head the assist for Alvaro Morata’s 56′ goal, sending Juventus past Real and into today’s final. It was a broken-down play that Pogba was able to turn into something for his team. Jose has made the Champions League one of his major priorities for next season and likely took notice of how he was able to make Real say arrivederci to Ancelotti.

(plus reasons)

Chelsea have lacked that physical something in the big games like PSG, both attacking and defensively. The addition of Pogba to the club could bring that for the long future. He’s the brightest prospect in one of the areas we could use the most improvement. Pogba also adds a decent playmaking ability and possesses some strong shots from outside the area. With that extra threat, pressure would be alleviated off the slight frame of Eden Hazard to make plays in the midfield while, with the potential of his long-range shots, he could unstagnate the offense when it’s facing an organized defense and open the space up between the midfield and defense for Diego Costa to work.

As Marcotti’s article mentioned, everywhere Paul has gone he has learned from some of the recent midfield greats. He’s rounded out his game as time has gone on and still at only 22 he can progress more. Under Mourinho and next to Matic and Fabregas in the midfield he’s likely to grow even further, beneficial for both the club and Les Bleus internationally.

Yes, it’s going to cost a lot of money to pry him away from Juventus. Fully recovered from the Calciopoli scandal they are dominating Italy and making bigger strides on the European stage. They will not need to sell and likely will see few reasons too. A situation much similar occurred over a decade ago when Zinedine Zidane was in Turin and moved to the Galacticos at Real Madrid. Both sides benefited then from the transfer and it’s likely that both could now. Juventus have already begun reloading for next season with the additions of Paulo Dybala and (probably) Alex Witsel. The Turin team is bracing themselves for the possible departure already and should be well off to defend their Serie A title.

Chelsea find themselves 99 million pounds richer having won the Premiership last month. A new, lucrative shirt sponsorship with Yokohama Tires should be revealed on the kits soon. If needed, sales of players at the club and on loan could be made to fund the club’s transfer endeavors.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek is a very popular young player that many are also predicting to be the future of his club and country. The 19-year old made appearances for the first team later on in the season and performed well. The addition of a player like Pogba could cause many to worry that he is jeopardizing RLC’s future role with Chelsea but if some spots were to open up in the team Loftus-Cheek should be able to compete for the available squad positions. Ruben has all the potential but is likely not ready for the big games that Chelsea will encounter next season.

Many teams are interested in Pogba but it’s likely that Juventus’ competition today, Barcelona, will be the favorites to land him as a replacement for Xavi. Having just defeated Juventus, hopefully the Italian giants will not be in such a friendly mood to boost the Catalan club. Barcelona getting stronger is never a good thing for Chelsea.

As Chelsea make their way into era 2.0 under Jose Mourinho a player the type of Paul Pogba could ensure the club stays at a top level both domestically and on the European fronts for the future. When he makes his first assist or goal next season the price tag will feel a lot lighter in the wallet. When he possibly places his hand on the Champion’s League trophy in the future.. what wallet were we talking about?

Do you agree? Who else do you think Chelsea could/should sign?