Chelsea’s locker room is an absolute disaster right now
By Travis Tyler
Chelsea have one thousand and one issues to deal with this summer. One of the main ones is how much of a shambles the squad dynamics are currently.
Winning the FA Cup should have been a calm moment for everyone at Chelsea to sit back and soak it all in for a moment. The players and staff should have merely been happy that the season ended with a (small in comparison to no Champions League) silver lining.
Instead, most of the fallout after the cup has been negative. Conte has rightfully refused to quit. Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois have demanded signings. And Willian and David Luiz have reverted to using Charly Musonda’s book of social media passive aggressive childish behavior. Put it all together and harmony in the squad is hard to come by.
Conte will not quit, nor should he. He did his best for the team for two years and has two trophies to show for it. He told the board what he needed and they ignored him, just as they did with Jose Mourinho. If he quits, or is fired and takes a job in the next season, he loses the remaining wages Chelsea owes him. That would be foolish for anyone and Conte deserves what he is due.
That makes for an uneasy situation with the squad. No one knows who will be manager next season. Will Conte stay because no one is available and the board backs him? Or will someone new come in? The players need to know to plan their futures. With the uncertainty, they are unsure as to what to do which only breeds uneasiness in the squad.
Meanwhile, Hazard and Courtois have both said the squad needs to strengthen. All season, that argument was made by Conte and was seen as an attack on the players for not being good enough. He was not wrong and now Hazard and Courtois are saying something similar.
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Some players will view those comments as attacks on teammates by Hazard and Courtois. Others will agree because they know if no one comes in, the Belgians are likely to depart. The club either strengthens at the expense of some or coasts at the expense of all.
Then there is Willian and Luiz who decided to act like children and crop or cover Conte out of photos in the celebrations. Musonda was blasted for doing similarly foolish things on social media and it appears Willian is getting the same treatment if not worse.
To have two senior players so opposed to a manager to do childish things is a shame. It is frankly disgraceful and neither should remain at Chelsea any longer. Musonda could at least blame his age, but Luiz and Willian should know better. They will should be sold wherever Chelsea gets a decent enough bid. If they do not like the destination, they can return to Brazil and throw a fit in the same way that Diego Costa did. Regardless, they are now rotten apples in the dressing room and should be kept away.
Add in the World Cup this summer and things could only get worse between the squad. All it will take is one bust up against a Chelsea teammate to create further tension next season.
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The dressing room needs to be united again after this poor season. Whoever is in charge next season needs to set about putting the pieces back together. If that means removing some of the now out broken beyond repair ones, so be it. If it means bringing in new pieces that fit in well, so be it. But if Chelsea do not united behind the badge again, then next season will mirror this one.