Chelsea: Don’t judge a player’s actions by what it’s his job to say, PSA edition

Jack Grealish and Kyle Walker were tarred and feather in the court of media sanctimony for their “violations” of England’s lockdown. Feel free to judge them on their actions, but don’t hold their professionally obligated speech against them.

Remember what we said throughout Chelsea’s 2018/19 season? Well, yes, you do, probably a lot of things, because many of them were memorable and all of them were right. Let’s narrow it down. Remember what we said throughout the 2018/19 season when Chelsea players were praising Maurizio Sarri’s training and style of play? We advised you to wait until the player or the coach were gone – only then would you hear the truth. Case in point: Cesc Fabregas. More jarring case in point: Jorginho.

These players aren’t dumb – they’re professionals. They praise their current manager because what kind of idiot would want to knowingly and very publicly run afoul of their boss, particularly if the boss has a reputation for being petty or thin-skinned (e.g., Jose Mourinho, as well as Sarri). Only once they are no longer dependent on that manager for their livelihood can they tell the unvarnished truth.

So if you want to know what a player really thinks about a manager, wait until a few weeks or months pass after they have gone their separate ways. That’s when you know the person and not the professional working for a paycheck thinks.

Remember that, too, the next time you hear a player making a public service announcement – especially when it’s one coming from on high, a broad statement espousing a policy backed and ultimately enforced by the government.

It’s one thing when a player speaks out on a cause close to his heart: perhaps a disease that cost him a loved one or a charity with whom he has had a long-standing relationship. It’s another when he was told to read words off a screen because it’s part of his duty to the club, the Premier League, the Football Association, his sponsor or someone else with the power to say “You will… or else.”

Jack Grealish was in a car accident last week and Kyle Walker threw a party this weekend. In reporting on these transgressions, the media burrowed in on their “hypocrisy” and “above the law” mentality since the incidents happened within days of the players reading scripts provided by whoever provides such scripts to “Stay at home, practice social distancing, support the NHS” etc etc.

Maybe they support these ideas, maybe they don’t.

The words came out of their mouth, but they weren’t their words. They were coerced if not compelled to say them, which makes it utterly unfair to hold the speech against their future actions. If you want to condemn them for violating the government’s edicts, that’s one thing. But to call them hypocrites when only one of the actions was fully voluntary is the media (and far too many Karen’s in everyday life) gleefully pouncing on the attractive narrative of the entitled, cocky footballer.

Let’s bring this back to football terms. Chelsea players did a lot of ridiculous things last season. Can we really fault them for it when they were under direct orders to do them?

Can we hold it against the players that they always built up in the same circuits, no matter how effectively the opponent read those circuits and interrupted the play? Was it the attacking midfielders and non-Eden Hazard wingers’ fault that the only way Chelsea could penetrate an opponent’s low block was to get the ball to Hazard and let him do Hazard things? Should we hold it against the centrebacks, full backs or N’Golo Kante that the deep-lying midfielder did nothing to screen or protect the defence from counter-attacks?

No, to all. Had a player done anything differently he would have found himself next to Gary Cahill on the bench. That discipline is not a knock on Maurizio Sarri – any manager would rightly do the same. It’s simply a knock on Sarri for making them do it, and any fans who hold the players responsible for executing Sarri’s system.

If you’re a law and order type, or a Imperial College model adherent, or a believer that sports stars are de facto and inescapably role models, then you are within your rights to excoriate Jack Grealish and Kyle Walker for breaking the lockdown.

But don’t set their collateral duties as someone else’s mouthpieces as the standard to judge them. If you want to know what a player thinks, find someone who will ask him what he thinks when his boss isn’t standing over his shoulder or behind a camera.