With the size of Chelsea FC’s squad and the youth players who need to be integrated, the Blues’ already difficult situation would become more so if the people entrusted with making tough decisions were too weak to do so.
Luckily, Chelsea have Frank Lampard at the helm. He has already demonstrated he will not struggle with making difficult decisions. Having spent most of the preseason getting as many players as many minutes as possible, he immediately set about doing the sort of honest assessment that has not happened at Chelsea in a long time.
Part of that process was reaching the conclusion that both Tiemoue Bakayoko and Danny Drinkwater are surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge.
This is something of a disappointment for both players. They both held a certain degree of promise upon arriving at Chelsea. Danny Drinkwater was a Premier League champion who had oddly formed one of the best midfield partnerships in recent memory with N’Golo Kante while at Leicester City.
Bakayoko has been even more of a disappointment because he should be one of the best midfielders in Europe, let alone the Premier League. He has the body and the resume to go with plenty of technical ability. But something simply doesn’t work when he’s in Chelsea blue.
He will likely have a wonderful and full career someplace else, but Lampard doesn’t think it’s worth stalling Chelsea’s progression while waiting for Bakayoko’s own.
This is the sort of thinking Chelsea managers have lacked for too long, perhaps not because they didn’t want to make these decisions but simply didn’t have the time.
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times: Chelsea’s biggest issue when it comes to building a team has been never getting more than 18 months into the process before starting again. Every manager knows they have no time to waste and so they move as quickly as possible. They work with their pre-existing notions of the players Chelsea have, then try to add to those.
That’s not the right way to build a team.
Frank Lampard’s insistence on making sure every single player gets game time and training time during pre-season has been fantastic. It is the only way he can see the character of his team and make the correct judgments moving forward.
Lampard is making the correct decisions to build the foundation Chelsea will need to move forward as successfully as possible over the next few years. If he is able to build a squad of players who have been fairly assessed, rightfully earned their places and know their standing, then Chelsea will be in the perfect place to move forward once the transfer ban ends.
It will be a curious beginning to the season if only because so little is known about how Chelsea will actually line up. Ideally, the Blues will start the season quickly and successfully but that does seem unlikely.
Due to the nature of the squad, Lampard hasn’t had much opportunity to work on things further along in the more advanced docket of coaching a high level football club. That makes it extra important that Chelsea have a good early set of fixtures for the team to find their footing.
During this time Lampard will almost undoubtedly be faced with more questions than he could possibly answer. Luckily for supporters, he has already demonstrated the intellect, character and charm necessary to handle them with aplomb.
Chelsea will hopefully trim the squad down to a manageable 25 by opening day while making a tidy sum of money to supplement their transfer spending next summer. Building a side with experience, youth, character, graft and talent, as well bringing in an extra 50 million or so before the season starts, would be a victory the club could earn before a ball is competitively kicked.
Frank Lampard could well turn into Chelsea’s own version of Diego Simeone. With his brave decision making and strong personality, he’s showing exactly why he was the perfect person for the club to turn to.