Most of the talk concerning Chelsea in recent weeks has been their pursuit of Argentinean striker and Sarri-disciple Gonzalo Higuain. This has been too much of a distraction.
Chelsea’s position in the league, both literally and philosophically, is slipping. There was a time back when Chelsea’s main ambition was to get into the Europa League without outspending anyone while fighting it out with Newcastle and Leeds. hen Roman Abramovich bought the club and changed the expectations of the supporters and the world of football.
Though no one is talking about it, Chelsea have slipped through mismanagement, complacency and general lack of football know-how to end up right where they started.
Chelsea sit fourth in the Premier League, but they should not be comfortable. I have said time and time again if we look simply at the strength of the squad they are not in the top four.
For a couple of years Chelsea were lucky the The New Jose Mourinho was managing to so thoroughly depress the talent and value of Manchester United’s players Chelsea could move up the table.
Now, though, Manchester City are clearly better and so are Liverpool. Manchester United’s team is one of the best assembled in years. With their managerial switch they performed the best example of addition by subtraction we’ll see in ages. Tottenham have a better squad – just barely -but eke out in front based on the continuity of their manager, players and style of play.
That leaves Chelsea in fifth by talent, and yet for some reason the only thing people seem able to talk about is Gonzalo Higuain and not the larger picture. They find ways to be upset about signing a full international and world-class player who was just voted MVP by his clubs fans despite leaving on loan.
Higuain is a good move for Chelsea. They are not doing anything extreme. They are signing a player on loan for six months with the option to extend a little longer if they’d like, and they never need to buy him.
What was the other option? Chase the Champions League with a bottle-cap opener at center-forward instead? Minimize the explosive talent of one of the best players Chelsea have ever had while alienating him philosophically during one of the most important times to convince him to stay? Yes, really wonderful thinking.
Chelsea risk nothing in this deal and have the potential to win so much more. Gonzalo Higuain could score 10-15 goals by the end of the season – precisely what Chelsea need. They shouldn’t go out and pay £45 million for him. But chasing fourth so Chelsea can make some money and not fall even further down the ladder is the most important thing.They need his talent for that.
If Chelsea are to maintain their status as one of the biggest clubs in Europe and get back to signing the sort of players people actually want they need to qualify for the Champions League consistently. Missing out for the second time in three years would be pathetic. Big players play for big clubs who play in the Champions League without fail.
Gonzalo Higuain is a good player. Since his Real Madrid debut in 2007, Higuaín has scored 224 goals in the top five European leagues. Only Lionel Messi (390), Cristiano Ronaldo (378), Edinson Cavani (239) & Zlatan Ibrahimovic (237) have scored more. He’s a prolific and strong striker who knows how to take part in Sarri’s system and might help move the damn thing out of first gear. Not acknowledging that there’s more upside to this than downside is just dumb. Sorry to be curt about that.
Chelsea are slipping and have been for years. Deals like this are good, pragmatic, smart moves. No one knows why they’re not offering £5-10 million for the alienated Adrien Rabiot to back-up Jorginho so Paris Saint-Germain don’t lose him for free instead of buying a £40 million player from Russia. At least there’s some sense in the Higuain deal.
The Blues have managed to somehow spend a lot of money and slip into the position they were in before Roman Abramovich bought the club. They need to be smarter and more aggressive. The team simply is too small in terms of financial breath to be able to cover up their mistakes with money like they did in his early tenure.
The Higuain move is good for the club because it hides some of the main issues that the team suffers from. But just because they are more obscured now doesn’t mean they don’t exist and need fixing soon.