Five years of Gary Cahill: Chelsea’s defensive opportunist

Gary Cahill has now spent five years at Chelsea. The Englishman has rarely been the first name on the teamsheet, but he has confounded his doubters frequently.

As of January 16, 2017, Gary Cahill has been at Chelsea FC for five years. He was signed when Andre Villas-Boas was manager and was looking to replace the old guard of John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Didier Drogba with younger players.

Cahill joined from Bolton Wanderers for £7 million. That club would go on to be relegated. Cahill’s new club, Chelsea, would go on to win the Champions League in the unlikeliest of circumstances. Cahill started and played the full 120 minutes on that fateful day, becoming part of history months after joining.

He was quickly thrown into the deep end at Chelsea, with Villas-Boas eager to move on from John Terry. Unfortunately for Terry, he was injured for a period after Villas-Boas was sacked. Cahill deputized for the captain in the meantime. Even when Terry had recovered and claimed back his spot under Roberto Di Matteo, Cahill started over an out-of-form David Luiz.

And on that fateful day in Munich, John Terry was suspended after a poor decision in the previous round. This opened the door for Cahill to start alongside Luiz and the rest, they say, is history.

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The following season, Cahill continued to play because of injury issues for Terry. Furthermore, Rafael Benitez did not believe Terry had the stamina to play multiple games in a week.

When Jose Mourinho returned to the club, he had initially decided to pair John Terry with David Luiz. This had been the plan since Cahill had joined. Cahill was to take Terry’s place when Terry could not go on, but until then Cahill was to sit on the bench.

But Mourinho grew tired of Luiz’s defensive lapses, and when the Brazilian was injured, Cahill firmly took his starting role. Indeed, the Terry-Cahill partnership worked so effectively that Chelsea allowed Luiz to go to Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season. Cahill had fought his way into being a starter at Chelsea.

That is not to say that he was untouchable, though. His game would shift from brilliant to absent-minded and overly cautious within minutes. When Cahill’s form dipped in the winter months of the 2014/15 season, he briefly lost his starting spot to Kurt Zouma. At the time, it appeared as if the young Frenchman had pushed Cahill back onto the bench.

But when given the opportunity to start once more, Cahill did not put a foot wrong. He kept Zouma benched for much of the remainder of the season.

Fast forward to the awful, terrible, and unfortunate season that was the 2015/16 season. Every Chelsea player, bar Willian, was in horrendous form. For as long as Jose Mourinho remained at the club, Cahill was in and out of the starting XI, usually with John Terry going the other direction.

When Guus Hiddink took over, Cahill was initially on the outside looking in at Terry and Zouma. But then Terry began to have injury issues again and Zouma tore his ACL. Cahill was suddenly the best available centerback Chelsea had.

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And now, in this season, Cahill is ever present. Yes, he has still made some boneheaded mistakes. No, he is not the first centerback on the team sheet. But for Antonio Conte, Cahill has been a constant name on the team sheet, often with the captain’s armband in Terry’s stead.

Even now, there are rumors that Nathan Ake will be taking his place in the starting XI. There are also rumours that a new centre-back will be brought in to replace what is perceived to be the weak link at the back.

That is the legacy of Gary Cahill, though. He is rarely the best player. His position is almost always in jeopardy when a new player is linked to the club, joins the club, or returns from injury. And yet, in the next game he will start. Again and again.

Cahill’s five years at Chelsea has been defined not by his quality, but by his tenacity. No matter what the challenge, no matter how unlikely, Cahill has fought to stay on top of things. Yes, luck has played a role in it. But luck plays a large role in every player’s career. The most successful players are those that take advantage when things go their way. Cahill has always done just that.

By all accounts, Nathan Ake will be taking Gary Cahill’s spot either this season or over the summer. That would be the most logical thing for all parties. But Cahill defies logic, and it would be unwise to bet against him.

Cahill has spent five years at Chelsea. It makes no sense why he would spend another five at the Blues. But that is Cahill in a nutshell. A player who has defied the odds. He has not been able to silence his doubters, and probably never will, but Cahill will always try, and likely quiet them a bit.