Chelsea: Isco is only good enough to damage Blues’ well-balanced squad

Chelsea are linked with Real Madrid midfielder Isco. These rumours should not amount to anything, not because Isco is not a good player, but because he is not so much better than Chelsea’s current players to guarantee himself a starting role.

Pep Guardiola has had an influence on English football, but not in the way many people think. He has given people a warped perception of how the transfer market works, how trophies work and generally how the game of football works. Contrary to popular misconception, trophies are not won and lost in the transfer market. Many people say things like “we need X number of world class players in every position to compete for the Premier League and Champions League. Just look at Pep!” No, you don’t need to be Pep or spend like Pep to win multiple trophies.

Real Madrid star Isco has recently been linked to Chelsea. This excites some fans because it would mean Chelsea have “X number of quality players in the same position,” whatever that position is. This is not always a good thing when another player is good enough for the squad but not good enough to definitively put to rest the argument about who should be starting. When the manager already has sufficient options, those new players are only good for disrupting the balance of the team.

Chelsea currently play with either two central midfielders and one central attacking midfielders, or they play with three central midfielders. Very rarely do they play with only two central midfielders.

Isco would most likely play as a central attacking midfielder, though he can play in many other positions. Lampard already has many options in many positions in the attacking third. Isco would face the great possibility of sitting on the bench because he, like many others, would have to fight for a place in the starting lineup.

Can Isco offer what Mason Mount offers? No one knows. Spending money on Isco would be a wasteful way of finding out.

There are two ways Chelsea can satisfy every party involved in the Isco deal. None of them seem viable.

One is to guarantee Isco that he would be a starter. The problem with that is Lampard would require Isco to do many things without the ball, which may not be Isco’s strongest suit. That would mean that Isco would need some time off the field, which would then mean fans would get agitated, saying Lampard is benching a world class player for “his boy,” Mason Mount. Isco would get unhappy and Lampard then has an unhappy player on fat wages.

The other way is to give Isco a contract that spells out that he would not be a guaranteed starter. This way Isco does not have expectations in playing time that would not be met. The obvious problem with this is that Isco would not agree to that deal.

As it is, Lampard already has selection headache. Isco’s direct competitors are likely to be Ross Barkley and Mason Mount. Ross Barkley barely even makes the match squad, mainly because Lampard is not lacking anything from Mount’s play. The fact that ChelsTwit drones on about Mount’s creativity does not mean Mount has a creativity problem. Then there’s also Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who is still recovering from a long-term injury but will eventually get back in contention for a starting spot.

And if Isco is to play on the wings, Lampard already has Callum Hudson-Odoi, Willian, Christian Pulisic, and Pedro. Ross Barkley and Mason Mount are also options on the wings.

On the financial side, Tammy Abraham is already demanding a salary on par with Callum Hudson-Odoi’s. That demand is bringing the contract negotiations to an impasse. Should Chelsea go after Isco, how much would he be paid? Would Isco be like Hudson-Odoi: a player who is not starting but is still the benchmark for salary negotiations?

“B-b-but Olaolu! He WOULD be a guaranteed starter because he’s BETTER than Mount”.

Wrong. Nobody is a guaranteed starter, and even though someone may seem guaranteed, they can still get dropped. If the player doesn’t have the right frame of mind, that’ll cause problems for himself, his head coach and his teammates.

Contrary to what many people think, playing for Chelsea is not enough to convince star players to come to Chelsea just to sit down on the bench.

Chelsea does not need a player like Isco because he would need to be guaranteed playing time that Lampard cannot guarantee, he would demand wages that would be illogical for a non-guaranteed starter and Chelsea would be overloaded in central midfield / central attacking midfield / wings, while not having enough in some other areas.

Lampard already has many quality/world class potential players on the bench. They are not happy about it, surely, but they know why they’re not playing.

Going back to Guardiola, Manchester City’s record signing, Riyad Mahrez was barely getting playing time. Many complained, Mahrez was not happy, but Guardiola said those above Mahrez in the pecking order had not dropped in performance.

Guardiola got away with it because he has over 30 major trophies and individual awards as a manager to prove that he knows what he is doing. Many players are just content to play under Guardiola and be part of the success story.

Lampard is yet to prove himself as a top manager. He has shown signs that he can become one, but until he proves himself, forgive players if they don’t jump at the opportunity to sit on Lampard’s bench.

Pep Guardiola can afford to build two starting line-ups of similar quality. Frank Lampard cannot. Jurgen Klopp cannot. Yet Klopp sits 11 points clear of Guardiola with a game in hand. Trophies do not come from the transfer market: they come from utilizing a squad and making that squad produce at full capacity. All the time.

To wit: Divock Origi took three shots in the 2018/19 Champions League season. He scored three goals from those shots. Two of those goals overturned a three-goal deficit to push Liverpool into the Champions League final. The third goal secured the Champions League trophy for Liverpool. Origi is not a starter. He’s doesn’t think he should be starting ahead of any of Liverpool’s front three.

Closer to home, the reason the Oliver Giroud deal went as smoothly as it did was because Chelsea needed a backup striker and Giroud agreed to be a backup striker. This meant that Giroud was OK not starting many games.

That is the value of having a player who is content with not starting regularly. A good squad player. Every club needs them.

Frank Lampard already has a difficult job to do keeping everyone happy. Anybody he brings in now would compound that task, so that player has to be worth the trouble. Isco would not be it for Chelsea.