To be quite honest with you, for our landlord to compile a list of five Chelsea stars who Blues fans want rid of this summer has proved quite a task and this is a credit to the levels of consistency Jose Mourinho has yielded at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues remarkably only lost three fixtures in the Premier League in 2014/15 and for a long while, the talk was that this particular Chelsea side could go on and emulate the Arsenal ‘Invincibles’ outfit of yesteryear.
As we know, Mourinho tends to favour working with a relatively small first team playing squad of about 20 or so professionals and it is often clear who is unfavoured simply due to the fact that they often fail to breach his matchday squad selections!
The Blues boss is set to give youth more of a chance at Stamford Bridge in the next couple of seasons with Ruben Loftus-Cheek having achieved some game time at the end of the season but when you consider Chelsea have a whole host of talent out on loan, some squad trimming is likely to take place.
Chelsea also rarely let a transfer window pass without bringing some new talent into west London and while the Blues’ squad is more complete than most, Chelsea fans would like to see Mourinho swoop for a new striker as well as an additional world class midfielder with Juventus’ Paul Pogba the man in demand.
Here however we have compiled a list of five players that Chelsea fans would rather not see at the club next season.
[ffc-gallery]Click on the image below to reveal the 5 Chelsea stars Blues fans want rid of this summer.[/ffc-gallery]
[ffc-gallery]
[/ffc-gallery]
Juan Cuadrado
Does he get a raw deal or simply not up to Chelsea’s lofty standards?
This is the question we have been asking ourselves here in the tavern but most of our Chelsea regulars are favouring the latter.
Cuadrado has of course only performed 12 times for the Blues in the Premier League so far after arriving from Fiorentina in January but in that time he has flattered to deceive.
Lighting up the World Cup last summer for Colombia and currently away with the national side at the Copa America, Cuadrado seems to be struggling to adapt to the English game.
While Jose Mourinho and the club chiefs will claim he is going nowhere this summer, we’ve learnt in recent seasons that not everything the Blues boss says can be taken as red and the latest in The Express is that Inter Milan are interested in landing Cuadrado this summer.
The fact of the matter is that Chelsea’s standards are so high at the minute that anybody performing beneath the maximum level is quickly found out by the Blues’ crowd.
Chelsea are now more than used to splashing lavish fees on new arrivals so we don’t think many Blues fans will be losing much sleep about potentially losing Cuadrado so soon.
Filipe Luis
Much like Cuadrado, if you were to pick another Chelsea player who wasn’t in that bracket of being indispensable at Stamford Bridge, Filipe Luis would join the Colombian in this category.
The Brazilian international was a big money arrival from Atletico Madrid last summer where he was a vital cog in Atletico Madrid’s La Liga title winning machine.
He is anything but prevalent in Jose Mourinho’s starting eleven however with Cesar Azpilicueta having nailed down this position as his own in the Blues boss’ time at Stamford Bridge.
Despite being an expensive substitute, Filipe Luis did indeed manage to make Dunga’s Brazil squad for the Copa America this summer and started against Peru the other night but his long-term international prospects may suffer from continuing to remain a sub in West London.
Other than striking a sublime free kick away at Derby County in the Capital One Cup last season, Filipe Luis was solid but didn’t blow anyone away and some Chelsea fans are regretting the decision to give up on Englishman Ryan Bertrand so easily.
While getting a new left back is anything but a priority this summer, if Filipe Luis was to return back to Spain where he’s enjoyed most of his professional career to date, again Blues fans wouldn’t be so bothered.
Victor Moses
Given the entire multitude of players Chelsea have had out on loan in recent times, we could forgive Blues fans for forgetting that Victor Moses is still officially their player!
Having spent the 2014/15 campaign out on loan at Stoke City, the Nigerian international looked quite handy but in total honesty is nowhere up to the standards required to succeed as a first team star at Chelsea.
When he was brought to west London back in 2012, eyebrows were raised regarding whether he could truly progress his career at a club where competition on the flanks was so rife.
Much like Adam Johnson at Manchester City and indeed Shaun Wright-Phillips before Moses at Chelsea, it seemed obvious at the start that they would make little impact on an already star-studded squad.
With a permanent switch to the Britannia Stadium potentially on the cards, we highly doubt that Jose Mourinho even caught up with Moses’ progress at Stoke via DVD footage, such are the level of players above him in the pecking order in Chelsea’s first team.
Mohamed Salah
Often spoke about in tandem with Juan Cuadrado, not only because of the position in which they both play but the fact he Salah moved on loan to Fiorentina to sweeten the deal for the Colombian, it’s fair to say that we’ve seen the worst of the pair in their time spent at Chelsea.
In recent times, our Chelsea regulars have seen the Blues departed duo of Andre Schurrle and Kevin De Bruyne flourish together in the Bundesliga at Wolfsburg and would rather that pair were still around at Stamford Bridge rather than Cuadrado and Salah.
It seems the Blues are used to stacking often unwanted talent in the wide areas and if you said now that Cuadrado and Salah could be used as bait to land a sought-after transfer target, most Blues fans would accept such an arrangement.
Salah is undoubtedly a talented player who showcased his best form ironically against Chelsea in the Champions League and for the Egyptian national team but he has failed to grasp the few chances he’s been awarded at Stamford Bridge and we know Jose Mourinho makes his mind up about a player fairly quickly, don’t we?
John Obi Mikel
Usually when a player makes over 200 Premier League appearances for their club side, they are often an indispensable cog in their team’s fortunes in the eyes of the fan.
However, that isn’t really the case with John Obi Mikel who has stuck around at Stamford Bridge for nine years now.
Still a relatively capable player in the holding role, it is simply the case that Nemanja Matic has set the bar so high with his performances in midfield that the Blues are noticeably weaker without the Serbian and when Mikel has to fill in to complete his job.
Mikel is likely to remain at Stamford Bridge this summer given his loyalty to the Blues and the fact he is trusted somewhat by Mourinho but the Champions League run of 2011/12 aside, he has been prone to an error or two in the few bad days Chelsea have experienced in recent times.
Although he’ll probably stay, if you said to Blues fans now that they’d sign Juventus’ Paul Pogba and had to free up a squad space in midfield, it’d be the good, not great Mikel or Brazilian team-mate Ramires that’d be fearing the chop, that’s for sure.
