Reece James will someday take over Chelsea’s right back duties from Cesar Azpilicueta, but when that someday occurs may depend strangely on what the club does with Davide Zappacosta.
Davide Zappacosta is having a Danny Drinkwater-esque preseason. He’s there, but we and most other Chelsea watchers will be good gosh darned if he’s left any impression one way or another. Pretty much the story of his time at the club in a nutshell.
Now that we all remember that Zappacosta is still around and consider that Frank Lampard is not the type to ghost a player, we’re confronted with Zappacosta being a slight impediment to Reece James’ post-injury succession to the starting right back position. The Evening Standard reported yesterday that whether James spends the season at Stamford Bridge or out on loan depends on if the club can first send Davide Zappacosta somewhere else.
The club’s thought process is likely that any number of Premier League or other top tier leagues will take Reece James for the season. They will not have any trouble finding a worthy placement for the young Englishman, who could walk into those clubs and feature regularly. Then next season he can return to Chelsea ready to make his way into the Premier League XI.
They may have a bit more difficulty finding a loan home for Zappacosta. His former club, Torino, were interested in his return until they solved their fullback dilemma courtesy of Chelsea in a different way: activating the buy cause in Ola Aina’s loan contract. This left the Blues bereft of the more promising of the two options, while Torino made out quite well in the whole deal. Not everything this summer has gone precisely Chelsea’s way.
Zappacosta would most likely return to Italy on loan, with Lazio another potential destination.
Chelsea should not let much stand in the way of James’ progression into the first team. Azpilicueta is not declining as much as some pea brains would like you to believe, but he needs a deputy to lighten his workload as he moves into his 30s and to mitigate the effects of any injuries he may suffer. A long-term transition is better than a series of stop-gaps culminating in some woeful transfer activity a few years down the road.
The Blues have been very shallow among the fullbacks for the last few years, with neither Zappacosta nor Emerson showing themselves for the best XI and with Marcos Alonso being inconsistent as a fullback. Aina and James have been the best options in the pipeline, which means the club’s only alternative to Zappacosta is James.
Zappacosta is more than capable of filling in for Azpilicueta in cup games, as he did last season. But that is not worth delaying the move from Azpilicueta to James. Sooner or later the club will need to make that happen, and later rarely turns out well. Later is how you get last-minute transfers like, well, Zappacosta.
The club may see a loan as being more appropriate for James than Zappacosta at this point in their respective careers, and they should be commended for thinking that way.
However, if there is any way they can arrange for James to spend the season progressing into his future – with or without Zappacosta in the squad – they should pursue that option.