Baba Rahman loan exemplifies Michael Emenalo’s failures
Baba Rahman burned a few bridges on his way out of Chelsea and the Premier League for his loan spell at Schalke. While Rahman’s comments are not justifiable, he was placed in that position by persistent failures of Chelsea’s management.
Consider this the updated version of Occam’s Razor: if something sounds like self-evident BS, it probably is. For example, does anyone really believe that Antonio Conte would utter the word “defensive” in terms of how he wants his team to play? Antonio Conte wants to use a 4-2-4 that transforms into a 3-3-4. That is the epitome of an attacking mindset.
Even if Conte was not a natural born attacker, he knows how to keep his job by bringing his clubs plenty of trophies. Surely he knows that many of Chelsea’s recent managerial firings came because Roman Abramovich demanded more offense than his skippers could deliver.
Conte is not walking around scattered training grounds in the United States telling his players that he wants to be defensive. Perhaps he said “I’d like my players to play defense as well as offense” and the self-titled “attacking full back” decided that was too much to bear.
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From 2011-2014, Antonio Conte’s Juventus had a positive goal difference of +152, highlighting in a single statistic his understanding of both offense and defense.
Rahman revealed his character by barely getting out the door before bashing his former coach. This loan is simply going to be the precursor to a longer and more permanent move. Rahman’s suggestion that “I am a rather offensive fullback” is ridiculous on its face.
Imagine that your car can talk for a second. Then imagine as you’re preparing to go to the grocer to pick up a pint of milk the car refuse to start. It tells you, “I view myself more as a plane.” That is what Conte had to tolerate from Rahman apparently.
Who exactly does Baba Rahman think he is? Roberto Carlos? May we remind you ever so gently, Mr. Rahman, that yes, Roberto Carlos was a magnificent attacker. But he was also as destructive a full-back defensively as could be found for well over a decade. A full-back simply must defend. To say otherwise is utter nonsense, particularly on his way out the door.
The most likely situation is Rahman simply realized he wasn’t good enough and Conte told the allergic-to-defending full back that he wasn’t going to get a lot of time in the team. Rahman decided that he should leave rather than fight for his place.
This situation exemplifies Michael Emenalo’s failures as a technical director. Rahman is simply another player that Emenalo purchased for a healthy sum of cash and who failed to make any sort of impact on the first team. This cycle simply cannot be allowed to continue. It is fiscally irresponsible and professionally embarassing.
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Chelsea essentially now pay transfer fees for other clubs to have players. With 30+ Chelsea players out on loan, Chelsea is a spigot of money and talent. Teams can now count on Chelsea to buy players and be so desperate to loan them out that it is a viable financial model to just ride Chelsea like a leech. This is Emenalo’s fault in entirety.
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Rahman showed his true colors on his way out the door with his comments about Conte. Without making excuses, the root failures are a lot higher up the food chain than simply Rahman’s inability to play his part in a football match.